March 12, 2004
Canada Confirms Second Bird Flu Case
A second farm in British Columbia, Canada, is confirmed to have H7 avian influenza, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Thursday.
The farm, located three kilometers from the first farm to be found with the virus in the Abbotsford area of British Columbia on the U.S. border, first reported a 1% mortality rate on Tuesday.
The birds were confirmed to have H7 avian influenza on Wednesday, though whether it is high or low pathogenic will still take a few days, said CFIA veterinarian Francine Lord.
The barn where the virus was reported holds 6,500 birds, though the entire farm of 65,000 is under quarantine, Lord said.
The first farm's 16,000 birds were destroyed Feb. 20, and the CFIA subsequently set up a 5km surveillance area. Up until now, agencies and scientists expected the disease had been contained.
According to Alain Charette, media relations officer for CFIA in Ottawa, the original farm consisted of two barns, and low pathogenic avian influenza was discovered in one of them. Tests were completed on the birds from both barns, at which time birds from the second barn were discovered to have high pathogenic avian influenza.
"The mutation is rare but that is documented," said pathobiology professor Eva Nagy of the University of Guelph (Canada). "The rare case is not that the virus mutates but that the CFIA was able to show this change."
At the same time the high pathogenic discovery was made, a nearby farm of four barns was reported to have an "unusually high mortality rate," said Charette.
The European Union on Thursday banned the import of all Canadian live poultry, poultry meat and products, eggs and pet birds until April 6. The ban will be reviewed on March 22.
According to the CFIA, Japan, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Peru, Brazil and South Korea have also suspended live poultry and poultry products from Canada while Romania, Mexico, Russia, Barbados, Philippines, Poland and Hong Kong have limited their ban to poultry and poultry products from British Columbia.
