Three poultry flocks in central Alberta have now joined an expanding list of Canadian commercial poultry farms hit by highly pathogenic avian influenza.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Thursday it had confirmed high-path H5N1 avian flu on Wednesday in two commercial poultry flocks in Mountain View County, between Calgary and Red Deer, and in one flock in Ponoka County, north of Red Deer.
CFIA said Thursday it had also confirmed high-path H5N1 on Wednesday in two more southern Ontario commercial poultry flocks: one at Markham, just north of Toronto, and the other in the municipality of Chatham-Kent, about 85 km east of Windsor.
Read Also
U.S. livestock: Cattle strength continues
Cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were stronger on Friday, hitting fresh highs to end the week.
The agency said it also confirmed high-path H5N1 on Tuesday in two additional cases in Ontario: one in a separate commercial poultry flock at Markham, the other in a backyard flock in Prince Edward County, south of Belleville.
In all cases, CFIA said Thursday, each infected premises has been placed under quarantine. The agency said it has begun investigations and would set up “movement control measures” on other farms within the affected areas.
CFIA didn’t say in its statement Thursday how many or what kinds of birds were affected in the new Alberta or Ontario outbreaks. An updated CFIA report on Canada’s avian flu cases wasn’t yet available Thursday from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
Non-commercial high-path H5N1 cases in Canada since last fall have included wild birds in all four Atlantic provinces and Quebec, a bald eagle in the Vancouver area, birds at two “non-poultry” farms in Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula and birds in two non-commercial backyard flocks in Nova Scotia.
Canada had been deemed free of high-path avian flu up until February, when two outbreaks were confirmed on commercial Nova Scotia poultry farms.
The new Ontario cases, meanwhile, bring that province’s total to seven infected poultry farms and three backyard flocks since March 27.
The appearance of high-path avian flu in Western Canada during this latest run of H5N1 through North America had been considered a strong possibility, as outbreaks have been appearing gradually further west in the U.S. in recent weeks.
Avian flu “is spreading in wild bird populations across the globe and presents a significant national concern as birds migrate to Canada,” CFIA reiterated in its statement Thursday.
In the U.S. since February, cases of high-path avian flu have now been confirmed in commercial poultry and/or backyard flocks in 24 states — including four states directly bordering Canada.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has confirmed cases in flocks in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Virgina, Wisconsin and Wyoming. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
