Border agents seize hunters' birds amid Canada bird flu scare

ST. PAUL — U.S. Customs officials in Minnesota and North Dakota seized more than 4,100 birds from hunters re-entering the United States from Canada following an outbreak of avian flu at a commercial chicken farm near Regina, Saskatchewan.

Mike Milne of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the birds were confiscated at entry points in Warroad and Portal and Pembina, N.D.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service banned all imports of poultry and unprocessed bird products and customs agents were told the ban included hunter-killed birds.

Agriculture Department officials rescinded the order on hunter-killed birds late Saturday night after reviewing their protocols.

But the move came too late to save the game birds seized from coolers of returning hunters over three days. Milne said the birds were confiscated from hunters in 88 vehicles, each carrying three or four hunters.

"We've had to order extra (garbage) trucks," he said.

The confiscated birds were sent to landfills. Birds also were confiscated at border crossings in Montana and at Canadian airports.

One of the hunters caught by the rules was Mike Borchert, 70, of Le Sueur. He and four friends were returning from a week of hunting in Saskatchewan on Friday when agents confiscated their 215 waterfowl at a North Dakota crossing.

"We asked the U.S. custom agents where they were taking them, and they said, 'To the landfill,'" Borchert said. "We were dumbstruck."

Not only was the USDA ban disappointing, but one man who was hunting in Saskatchewan at the time called it pointless.

"Biologically, it makes no sense whatsoever," said Michael Chamberlain, a professor at Louisiana State University. "They were saying you can't transport a hunter-killed bird across the border, when millions of birds are migrating across the border already?"

While the Saskatchewan avian influenza is not the H5N1 virus that has caused worldwide alarm, USDA officials said the H7N3 virus is a considerable threat to commercial poultry farms.

"It's better to act with an abundance of caution," said Karen Eggert, spokeswoman for the USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service.

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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press,

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