The H5 avian influenza virus has been detected on poultry farms in Canada in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver, officials in British Columbia confirmed on Tuesday this week. Testing was conducted on Monday after thousands of birds died at a turkey farm and a broiler chicken breeding facility last weekend. Testing has determined that the virus is a high-pathogenicity strain of H5N2, the same virus that caused previous outbreaks in Canada. The bird flu that has hit European flocks is H5N8.
“The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has placed four farms under quarantine to control disease spread and the industry sector has been notified to adopt enhanced biosecurity practices,” Canadian officials said in a statement.
About half of the 11,000 birds on the turkey farm and 1,000 of the 7,000 chickens on the breeding facility died from the disease. The remaining birds are being culled, according to Canadian officials. The farms will remain under quarantine until the barns, equipment, and vehicles are disinfected.
The outbreak is the fourth in the Fraser Valley since 2005. In 2004, an H7-type flu transformed into a highly contagious strain. Farm after farm was quarantined until finally about 15 million birds, almost the entire valley poultry population, were destroyed.
The virus does not pose a risk to food products that are properly cooked.
