CANADA-BIRD FLU ESCULATES-
An outbreak of avian flu has been detected on a second farm in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said on Friday.
Sandra Stephens, veterinary program specialist with the agency, said testing confirmed the presence of an H5 virus on the second property.
The latest outbreak in the southwestern corner of the province is located fairly close to the farm where H5N2 virus was detected last month in two barns.
It’s believed to be a low-pathogenicity virus, like the first one, Ms. Stephens said.
But what may be alarming to commercial poultry producers in the Fraser Valley is the possibility that the latest outbreak may not be connected to the first.
"Investigations to this point would indicate that we do not have any direct contact [between the latest property and the one last month] so it is quite likely that this is an independent introduction of a virus into the barn," Ms. Stephens said.
The first outbreak was of an H5N2 virus. In the latest outbreak, the specific type of virus - or N number - has not yet been determined.
The H5N2 virus is not related to the H5N1 avian flu virus that has decimated poultry flocks and resulted in human fatalities in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Eastern Europe.
It is, however, the same type of virus that caused an avian flu outbreak in the Fraser Valley in late 2005.
This second property has 12,000 breeder birds laying chicken eggs and officials say all will be destroyed.
There are now 43 properties in the area under quarantine, including 10 new ones as a result of the new discovery.
"The [most recent] flock was tested as part of a surveillance activity within three kilometres of the commercial poultry operation where low pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza was detected Jan. 24," Ms. Stephens said.
"Tests to date indicate the strain of avian influenza on the new premises is also low pathogenic and similar to the original strain identified at the initial premise."
The latest detection came from samples collected Jan. 31 along with follow-up samples taken Feb. 5.
The new premise is "toward the outer limit of that initial three-kilometre radius drawn around the initial premise."
Approximately 60,000 turkeys on the first affected farm were euthanized and they are being composted in the two barns at temperatures that should ensure any viruses are destroyed, the agency said.
More than 62,000 poultry had to be destroyed when avian flu was found in the Fraser Valley in late 2005.
