Canada quarantines second poultry flock for bird flu

By Marcy Nicholson

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – Canada is investigating a
second backyard poultry flock for bird flu, although all birds
remain healthy, authorities said on Sunday.

“A quarantine has been instituted at that premise and it’s
because there’s been contact either with live birds or through
foot traffic and potential contamination with the original
infected farm,” said Canadian Food Inspection Agency
veterinarian Jim Clark.

The CFIA announced on Friday it had detected a case of H5
avian flu in a gosling from a backyard poultry flock after four
goslings died, in the eastern province of Prince Edward Island.

Test results are expected on Tuesday, to confirm if the
virus is a North American or Asian strain. If there is enough
virus present, the CFIA will be able to determine whether it is
a high or low pathogen strain.

“There’s no direct evidence that the influenza virus was
the cause of the problem in the four birds that died,” Clark
added.

All birds on the second farm, adjacent to the original
farm, remain healthy and the CFIA has taken some swab samples
to determine if the virus exists on that farm.

The noncommercial flock of 35 to 40 ducks, geese and
chickens on the original farm were euthanized by the CFIA on
Friday.

Clark said he was not aware of any human illness linked to
the virus.

The CFIA has said there is no evidence the case involves
the high-pathogen H5N1 strain that has spread to 48 countries
since 2003. H5N1 has not been discovered in the Americas.