OTTAWA, April 7 (UPI) -- Canada's chicken farmers may lift national quotas to resolve any shortage of the fowl caused by the avian flu crisis in the province of British Columbia.
Such a move would ease the federal government's job in compensating the industry for its losses, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported Wednesday.
The Chicken Farmers of Canada is meeting in Ottawa to discuss how it can keep chicken consumers well stocked in the wake of the federal government's massive culling order.
The association does not anticipate an immediate shortage because it believes most of the millions of slaughtered birds will likely test negative for bird flu and be allowed into the food chain.
The shortage, it believes, will come in four or five weeks after the birds are all dead and the chicken producers are trying to get their farms back into operation, said Lisa Bishop, a spokeswoman for Chicken Farmers of Canada.
But any shortage could be made up if the association decides to ease quotas in other provinces to allow higher production, Bishop said.
