Alberta, Ontario see more avian flu in flocks

Highly pathogenic avian influenza has been confirmed in one more commercial poultry flock each in central Alberta and eastern Ontario, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Tuesday.

The agency said it had confirmed on Monday that high-path H5N1 avian flu had infected a poultry flock in Camrose County, southeast of Edmonton, and on Tuesday also confirmed high-path H5N1 in another poultry flock in the Ontario township of South Glengarry, on the St. Lawrence River just west of the Quebec border.

The findings announced Tuesday bring the total number of cases in Canadian poultry flocks so far this year to 18: nine in southern Ontario, seven in central Alberta and two in western Nova Scotia.

Details about the types and numbers of birds infected in the new cases weren’t immediately available Tuesday.

CFIA continues setting up primary control zones (PCZs) surrounding infected premises, in which all movement of domestic birds and poultry products — whether in, out or through — is “strictly controlled” and requires CFIA permits.

As of Tuesday, 11 PCZs have been officially set up in southern Ontario along with one in Alberta.

On top of the outbreaks in commercial flocks, officials in the past few months have also confirmed high-path avian flu in wild and/or non-commercial birds in all four Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

To the south, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) since February has confirmed high-path avian flu in commercial poultry and/or backyard flocks in 26 states, including five states directly along the Canadian border.

As of Saturday, such cases have so far been found in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

‘Early detection’

Alberta’s Agriculture Minister Nate Horner, in a separate statement Tuesday, said the “quick discovery” of H5N1 cases in that province “is a testament to the effectiveness of our disease surveillance and response system and the commitment of our poultry producers.”

CFIA, he said, is leading the investigation and response and the province “has supported the CFIA with testing and mapping.”

Alberta residents, he said, “can be assured there is no risk to food safety and that the risk to human health is extremely low.”

According to CFIA, avian influenza viruses such as high-path H5N1 may “on rare occasions” cause disease in people, with such transmissions usually coming through “close contact with infected birds or heavily contaminated environments.”

High-path avian flu viruses as well as low-path H5 and H7 viruses are considered to be notifiable avian influenza, which in Canada is a reportable disease, meaning all cases must be reported to CFIA. Avian flu virus strains are classified as high-path or low-path depending on the severity of the illness seen in infected birds.

Up until Nova Scotia’s two outbreaks in commercial flocks in February, Canada had been considered free of avian flu since 2015, after a run of outbreaks in which 13 poultry flocks in British Columbia and three in Ontario contracted high-path H5N2.

Alberta’s cases are “an important reminder of the importance of strict biosecurity measures and early detection,” Horner said Tuesday, also emphasizing that any suspected or confirmed avian flu cases must be reported either to CFIA directly or through the chief provincial veterinarian’s office. — Glacier FarmMedia Network