November 1, 2005

Canadian wild ducks tested positive for bird flu strain

Canada has discovered a strain of H5 avian flu in wild migratory ducks, an official reported Monday but it is unlikely to be linked to the avian flu-led human deaths which has spread from South-east Asia to Europe.

The expert was quoted as saying that it would take at least a week to determine whether the flu found in 33 ducks from the provinces of Quebec and Manitoba was of the deadly H5N1 strain responsible for the outbreak in poultry farms across Asia.

It was not surprising, however, that a variant of the H5 virus had found its way to Canada, the expert said, although this strain was probably present in a less virulent form.

Some 4,800 samples from wild birds in seven Canadian provinces were studied prior to news of the infection spreading from Asia to parts of Europe and Turkey.

The H5N1 strain, transmitted to Europe by migratory birds, is feared to be spreading throughout the world in a similar way.

The World Health Organization says the H5N1 outbreaks in Southeast Asia have infected 121 people and caused 62 deaths in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia. Vietnam has been hardest hit, with more than 40 deaths and tens of millions of poultry destroyed.

Less virulent strains of the H5 virus have been found before in North America. Parts of Mexico have suffered through an outbreak of H5N2 bird flu in poultry operations for more than a decade.

Canada had an outbreak of bird flu in 2004, but of the less harmful H7 virus, believed not to pose a serious risk to humans. About 17 million birds in British Columbia were slaughtered in early 2004 in an effort to stamp out any spread of the virus.