A second farm in western Nova Scotia has been hit with highly pathogenic avian influenza in commercial birds, further expanding containment measures in that province.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Monday it confirmed high-path H5N1 on Wednesday last week in birds at a mixed farm in the area, where operations include poultry and poultry products for sale.
The H5N1 strain in this case is the same strain seen in “non-poultry” birds on properties in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, as well as wild birds in both provinces — and, most recently, a commercial turkey operation in the same area of Nova Scotia, confirmed Feb. 3.
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Analysis of that strain has shown it lines up with the “Eurasian lineage” of H5N1 known to have been circulating in 2021 in poultry in Europe, CFIA said in a previous report to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
CFIA said it has imposed the usual movement restrictions on the second farm and is “recommending enhanced biosecurity for other farms within the area.” Controls in such cases include a three-kilometre protection zone and a 10-km surveillance zone around the infected premises.
Affected producers and the relevant industry associations and federal and provincial departments are co-operating in the agency’s ongoing investigation, CFIA said Monday.
The agency said Monday it also “continue(s) to engage with international trading partners to support the resumption of trade,” as several countries last week imposed restrictions on imports of birds, eggs and/or poultry products, either from the affected area, all of Nova Scotia or all of Canada.
Countries with restrictions now in place on Canadian products include the U.S., Mexico, the European Union, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the Philippines, among others.
The U.S., which last Wednesday confirmed high-path avian flu on a turkey farm in southern Indiana, said Monday it has now also confirmed the virus in birds on a commercial broiler chicken operation in Fulton County in western Kentucky, and in a backyard flock of “mixed-species” birds in Fauquier County in northern Virginia.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its separate release Monday, said it “also continues to communicate with trading partners to encourage adherence to OIE standards and minimize trade impacts.”
USDA said Friday it would also be expanding its wild bird surveillance in the Atlantic and Pacific Flyways for migratory birds, in which it “conduct(s) surveillance of birds that may interact with wild birds from Europe and Asia.”
The department also said Friday it would expand the range of that wild bird surveillance to include the Mississippi and Central Flyways. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
