March 6, 2006

Poultry farms in Canada's Quebec test negative for H5N1

The bird flu scare surrounding eight Quebec poultry farms under quarantine since importing ducks from France, the latest country hit by the deadly virus, is unfounded, according to Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) officials in a CanWest News Service story Friday.

The CFIA said a second set of swab tests performed on ducklings at the farms for the highly contagious H5N1 virus are negative.

"The conclusion is that there is no active bird flu virus circulating in any of the flocks under quarantine," said Doug Steadman, executive director of the agency's animal products directorate in the story. "These animals are perfectly healthy and we did not expect to find anything."

Officials would not reveal the farms' locations, other than to say they are in various parts of the province. Steadman in the story added the poultry came into Quebec before avian flu was discovered in eastern France.

The two sets of tests, carried out at the Centre for Animal Health in Winnipeg, were ordered as a precaution because, according to Agence France-Presse, nine swans, a duck and a heron had tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu in eastern France.

Last Friday, Canada joined the United States and Japan in banning French poultry imports. Meanwhile, the Quebec Federation of Poultry Producers, which does not include farmers who raise ducks, in the story said it had not noted any change in public attitudes toward chickens as a result of the publicity surrounding the virus.