Worst bird-flu season in years hits Alberta’s poultry farmers

Alberta’s poultry producers are working through the worst avian flu season in years.

Scott Olson has been through it twice before.

The Wetaskiwin-area turkey farmer lost his 10,000-bird flock in the spring of 2022, when the wild geese migration passed over, then again when they returned in the fall. 

Now he is dealing with his third outbreak and third cull.

Olson is again pressure-washing his two large barns — disinfecting them as he awaits an inspection — and preparing to restart a recertified operation after Christmas with new hatchlings. 

“It’s such a bad disease,” said Olson, also a director with Alberta Turkey Producers. 

“We work with a stamp-out policy, essentially so we’re not affecting our neighbours … It’s like a fire: you’re just trying to put the fire out.”

Olson’s was one of 11 commercial poultry farms in Alberta under the direction of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as active quarantine and containment zones as of Nov. 30. 

There were six in all of 2024 in Alberta, including two at large commercial operations. Chicken and turkey meat farms, egg production facilities and hatcheries saw 10 outbreaks in 2023 and 38 in 2022.

All together, 2.5 million birds in Alberta have died as a result of avian influenza over that time period, second only to British Columbia with more than nine million deaths.