Awareness: Ontario farms under bird flu quarantine

Canadian Press
Twenty-nine poultry farms in Ontario were under quarantine on Sunday after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency established an avian influenza control zone in the wake of the disease being found on a turkey farm in the province earlier this month.

The agency had said last week that H5 avian influenza was found on a farm in Woodstock, Ont. It had placed the infected premises and eight other farms under a quarantine.

That quarantine was broadened over the weekend as a new control zone — stretching out in a 10 kilometre radius from the infected farm in southwestern Ontario — was established.

Wow! Vatican opens pope farm to public

Tourists visit the gardens at the pope's summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. Getty

Daniela Berretta The Associated Press

Pope Francis is opening the doors to an earthly paradise: the working farm at the papal summer residence here that produces the dairy, meat and vegetables for the pope and his staff.
The Vatican is planning to open the farm at Castel Gandolfo to the public next year, after finding success with its guided tours of the surrounding gardens, fountains and Roma-era archaeological treasures on the sprawling estate 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Rome.

Francis has decided not to use the hilltop retreat overlooking Lake Albano, preferring to stay put in his suite at the Vatican hotel during vacations. The last time the palazzo was used was when Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI took up residence for a few months after his dramatic resignation in 2013.

Soon, the public will be able to see the free-range hens housed in a majolica-decorated chicken coop, the ostriches, turkeys, rabbits and 80 cows that feed Francis and his staff at the Santa Marta hotel.

“We wait for the order from Santa Marta,” said Osvaldo Gianoli, who runs the villa. “We proceed according to that order and put together a special basket for the Holy Father that reaches his table and his kitchen.”