A fourth flock of domestic birds in southwestern Ontario has come down with highly pathogenic avian influenza, this time a backyard flock with no commercial farms nearby.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said Thursday it confirmed high-path H5N1 avian flu that day in the township of Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation on the Bruce Peninsula, north of Owen Sound.
The Feather Board Command Centre, an Ontario poultry and egg industry agency that monitors disease outbreaks, said Thursday the case was in a small backyard flock that was showing “increased mortality.”
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As it has in other outbreaks of H5N1 in commercial birds in Ontario in the past week and in Nova Scotia in February, CFIA said Thursday it has placed the affected premises under quarantine and is establishing “movement control measures” at the site.
CFIA also said it was recommending “enhanced biosecurity for other farms within that area.” The FBCC noted Thursday there are no commercial-level flocks nearby.
Neither CFIA nor the FBCC said Thursday what kinds of birds were included in the Ontario backyard flock or how many were confirmed to have caught or died of H5N1. CFIA’s report to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on this case wasn’t yet publicly available Friday.
To limit the risk of backyard flocks contracting avian flu, CFIA’s five basic rules include:
- making sure birds and their food and water supplies are kept away from wild animals — including wild birds;
- routinely and thoroughly cleaning barns, cages, egg trays, tools and water and feed containers; cleaning hands, clothing and footwear before and after handling birds; not sharing equipment between bird owners;
- watching for signs of sickness in the flock and reporting serious illness or sudden mortalities to veterinarians and/or CFIA;
- limiting birds’ exposure to visitors; and
- keeping new birds separate and monitored for at least a month before introducing them into an existing flock.
Other high-path H5N1 cases in Canada since last fall have included wild birds in all four Atlantic provinces and a bald eagle in the Vancouver area, plus domestic birds at two “non-poultry” farms in Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula and two non-commercial backyard flocks in Nova Scotia.
Since none of those cases involved commercial poultry, Canada had been considered to be free of high-path avian flu since 2015, up until the Nova Scotia cases in February.
In the U.S., cases of high-path H5N1 have been confirmed since February in commercial poultry and/or backyard flocks in 23 states.
As of Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said it’s confirmed cases in flocks in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Virgina, Wisconsin and Wyoming. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
