November 9, 2009

Canadian scientists are taking a fresh look at how vulnerable poultry are to AH1N1 in the wake of recent infections discovered in a commercial turkey flock in Ontario.

The discovery of the virus about two weeks ago at an Ontario facility that raises turkeys contradicted earlier research by the US Department of Agriculture that concluded turkeys could not contract AH1N1. Initial USDA research, involving the injection of the virus taken from pigs into birds, also concluded that chickens could not contract the virus.

Soren Alexandersen, director of Canada's National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases, said Friday (November 6) that scientists there are growing more of the virus to study its effect on other turkeys and eventually chickens.

Alexandersen, in a telephone interview with Dow Jones Newswires, said he is doubtful that chickens or even wild birds could be susceptible to the AH1N1 virus.

He agreed, however, that the initial research was wrong about turkeys.

"It's always difficult to operate from limited laboratory experiments and then [apply them] to the real world," he said. "We can do experiments in the lab and we can perhaps get an indication of something, but it is not the whole story."

The USDA wants some of the virus samples, he said. "We need to make sure everything is all right [with the virus samples] and then we can ship it."

Government officials in Chile announced in August they had confirmed AH1N1 in turkeys, but the USDA has not yet been able to confirm that. The USDA asked for samples of the virus to study, according to an official, but hasn't received them.