Bird flu spreads to 11 Ontario farms, claims 84,000 birds: Agency

About 84,000 birds in Ontario have died or been destroyed since a new strain of bird flu was detected in the province last month.

Craig Price, who is heading up the federal government’s response to the discovery of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu, said at a media briefing Monday outbreaks have been confirmed at 11 properties in Ontario. The latest case, detected Sunday, was found in the Township of Glengarry just west of the Quebec border.

Price wouldn’t say how many birds have been destroyed in the two outbreaks closest to London – in Chatham-Kent and western Oxford County – in order to protect the identities of the producers involved.

In 2015, federal and provincial officials spent months containing and eventually eradicating a strain of bird flu. That outbreak was contained to three farms in Oxford County. About 80,000 birds, mostly turkeys, were wiped out.

Ontario is the largest producer of poultry in the country, with much of the industry in Southwestern Ontario.

Price, the incident commander for the national emergency operations center on avian influenza at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said more than 260,000 birds have died or been destroyed across the country. Outbreaks have been confirmed in Alberta, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador as well as Ontario.

The agency says bird flu is spreading in wild bird populations around the world and is a “significant national concern” as birds migrate to Canada.

The first confirmed case in a wild bird in the province was a red-tailed hawk found in the Region of Waterloo on March 21, Chris Sharp, a federal-government biologist, said at the same briefing. The hawk “was showing neurological signs and it was euthanized,” Sharp said.

The first outbreak in Ontario poultry was confirmed by officials on March 27 in the Township of Guelph-Eramosa in a turkey flock.

Price did not specify where in Chatham-Kent the 10^th outbreak was detected.

“We have not seen or observed evidence of farm-to-farm movement of the disease” in any of the outbreaks in Canada, Price said. Such transmission is possible, but the current outbreaks are “most likely an introduction through wild birds.”

This is the first time the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu has been found in Canada, said Mary Jane Ireland, the executive director of the animal health directorate, policy and programs branch at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Canada’s chief veterinary officer, who also was at the briefing.

“I think this is, in recent memory, one of the larger number of cases in multiple provinces of avian influenza and the first time we have had H5N1,” she said.

Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs says bird flu is not a threat to food safety when properly handled and cooked.

It also says avian influenza is not a significant public health concern for healthy people who are not in regular contact with infected birds.

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