H5N1 Avian Flu Viruses Found in Manitoba, but Not Asian Form of Virus: Source

TORONTO (CP) – The Canadian Press has learned wild ducks in Manitoba have tested positive for H5-N1 avian flu viruses, but not the dangerous form of the virus circulating in Southeast Asia.

The findings will be reported by federal officials at a news conference Saturday afternoon.

A source confirmed that H5-N1 viruses were isolated from two ducks as part of a cross-country surveillance program to find what avian flu viruses are being carried by wild ducks in this country.

The viruses are not considered a threat to human health.

The source says the there is no “new threat to human health and certainly not a new threat to the poultry industry or anything like that.”

So far, all the viruses that have been found through the surveillance program – including the H5-N1s – are of low pathogenicity.

The Asian H5-N1 viruses are highly pathogenic, meaning they are lethal to chickens. Those H5-N1 viruses have also infected 130 people in five countries since 2003 and 67 of those people have died.

Canadian scientists who have studied big chunks of the genetic code of the two proteins on the surface of the Manitoba H5-N1 viruses have confirmed these viruses are from the family of North American H5-N1 viruses, not the strains circulating in Southeast Asia.