Avian flu outbreaks climb in Quebec poultry

After a relatively quiet March with just one outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in domestic poultry, Quebec has turned up 13 outbreaks so far this month.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency in April has reported detections of high-path avian flu at 13 sites in that province, including:

• three commercial barns in the regional county municipality (RCM) of Rouville, east of Montreal, including two detected on April 3 and one on April 4;
• a backyard (non-commercial) poultry site at Sherbrooke, on April 13;
• seven commercial barns in the RCM of Les Maskoutains, around St-Hyacinthe, including one each detected April 13, 17 and 18 and two each detected April 19 and 22; and
• two commercial barns in the RCM of La Vallée-du-Richelieu, just west of Les Maskoutains, detected April 18 and 21.

The Quebec government announced April 6 it will put up $800,000 for the province’s poultry disease control team (EQCMA) to go toward producer training; updating biosecurity protocols; building up “field expertise” in cleaning and disinfection of barns; and buying and developing new systems for rapid culling on infected farms.

The province also said it would set up new supports for small farms, including the establishment of a voluntary ID registry; biosecurity training for backyard and smaller-scale poultry operations; and development of a best practices guide for construction of chicken coops.

Provincial Ag Minister Andre Lamontagne said at the time that the investment “will allow us to be better prepared and more agile during future avian flu outbreaks.”

Relatively few cases have been spotted so far this month elsewhere in Canada. They include a non-commercial, non-poultry site in central Alberta’s Lacombe County, detected Friday, and two commercial poultry barns in southwestern Ontario, one detected April 5 at Middlesex Centre, the other April 19 in Norfolk County.

As of April 19, the run of high-path avian flu through Canada that began in late 2021 is estimated to have impacted 7.596 million domestic birds on 319 premises across nine provinces. Of those 319, 58 are still under CFIA quarantine pending culls and/or disinfection.

In the U.S., the run of high-path avian flu that began there in early 2022 has so far affected an estimated 58.79 million domestic birds in 325 commercial and 507 backyard flocks across 47 states.

The most recent cases reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture include an outbreak with no details yet available in northern Colorado’s Routt County, reported Monday; two outbreaks on commercial turkey farms reported April 19, one in southern North Dakota’s Dickey County and one in east-central South Dakota’s Beadle County; and an outbreak at a “live bird market” in Brooklyn in New York City, reported April 18. — Glacier FarmMedia Network