No trade bans expected from Nova Scotia bird flu findings

A new outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a backyard flock in central Nova Scotia isn’t expected to affect international trade in Canada’s feather sectors.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on Tuesday confirmed a high-path H5N1 strain affecting birds on the property, describing it Thursday as a “non-poultry detection” among animals not produced for sale.

Thus, as per World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) guidance, Canada’s status as “free from avian influenza” remains in place, CFIA said, and the detections “should have no impact on trade.”

The agency has reported “several” confirmed detections of the same strain of AI in wild birds in Newfoundland and more recently in a wild goose in the same region of Nova Scotia.

The new outbreak “serves as a strong reminder that (avian flu) is spreading across the globe in wild birds as they migrate to and from Canada,” CFIA said.

Anyone with farm animals, birds included, “should practice good biosecurity habits to protect them from animal diseases.”

High-path H5N1 cases were also detected in December and January in “non-poultry” birds at two separate farms on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula, marking Canada’s first high-path cases in domestic birds since 2015.

Analysis of the virus in the December case showed it was genetically lined up with the “Eurasian lineage” of high-path H5N1 that’s been circulating in poultry and wild birds in Europe and Asia in recent months.

In a separate Jan. 2 report, Ontario’s Feather Board Command Centre — an industry agency tracking both domestic and international bird disease outbreaks — said it’s believed a North Atlantic storm which hit that area of Newfoundland in early October may have “swept along” migrating waterfowl from northern Europe. — Glacier FarmMedia Network