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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced the temporary ban Tuesday, following France’s move to require mandatory vaccination against highly pathogenic avian flu (HPAI) in ducks raised for meat production starting this month.

CFIA said it has been in “close contact” with French and European Union officials on the matter since June, and received a presentation in July from France on that country’s HPAI vaccination plan.

France’s plan was announced after the European Union passed legislation in March on use of vaccination to mitigate animal disease outbreaks.

The French plan requires vaccinations of ducks for meat production. Vaccination of breeder ducks is permitted, but only for birds that will not be exported.

However, CFIA said, it’s not yet clear whether meat from vaccinated ducks will be eligible for export to other countries — nor how France plans to identify, trace and control vaccinated breeding stock.

CFIA said it’s “currently conducting” its risk assessment, and until that evaluation is complete, the suspension will be in effect.

The agency’s suspension on imports from France applies to live birds and hatching eggs; all unprocessed avian and poultry products and byproducts, including “edible or inedible” raw poultry meat, eggs, feathers, poultry manure and litter; laboratory material containing poultry products or byproducts; and any raw or unprocessed pet food containing poultry products or byproducts.

Cooked and canned or hermetically sealed, commercially sterile meat products are still eligible for import, CFIA said.

France, like Canada, the U.S. and many other countries, has seen its poultry industry hard hit by outbreaks of HPAI in the past couple of years.

CFIA reports that as of Sept. 21, Canada’s run of HPAI outbreaks since December 2021 has impacted an estimated 7.678 million domestic birds.

A lull in cases since May this year ended in September, as CFIA detected five outbreaks during the month including four premises in Alberta and one in southwestern Saskatchewan.

READ MORE: France stacks the deck against bird flu but risks issues

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Serice (APHIS) on Friday also announced such a ban, also taking effect Oct. 1.

APHIS’ ban applies on imports of poultry from France, as well as live ducks, duck eggs, and “unmitigated/untreated” duck products from the APHIS-recognized European Poultry Trade Region (EPTR) as well as Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Great Britain is not included in the EPTR ban.

The U.S. doesn’t allow poultry from countries affected with HPAI “or from flocks that have been vaccinated by HPAI,” APHIS said in a release Friday.

Vaccination of poultry against HPAI “may mask HPAI virus circulating in poultry,” APHIS said, and vaccinated birds “may not show signs of infection, which could lead to the export of infected live animals or virus-contaminated products to the United States.”

Furthermore, APHIS said, EU member states and other non-EU countries in Europe have open access to the European common market for trade in avian commodities.

“With the way poultry moves under the EPTR, we currently cannot be assured countries trading in the European common market can reliably certify that exports do not originate from European countries that vaccinate poultry for HPAI,” APHIS said.

“Accordingly, these restrictions address the risk of open trade within Europe while accounting for the higher risk with imports from France.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The court declined to hear an appeal by producers of foie gras, including the Association des Eleveurs de Canards et d’Oies du Quebec, a Canadian nonprofit that represents duck and goose farmers.

In doing so, the high court left intact a 2017 ruling by the San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the law.

Animal rights groups contend that the force-feeding process is painful, gruesome and inhumane.

California enacted the law in 2004 but it did not go into effect until 2012. The Supreme Court in 2014 rejected an earlier appeal brought by producers and restaurants.

Foie gras means “fatty liver” in French. The product is produced by force-feeding corn to ducks and geese to enlarge their livers, which are harvested to make gourmet dishes.

The law specifically bans any product created by “force feeding a bird for the purpose of enlarging the bird’s liver beyond a normal size.”

— Lawrence Hurley reports on the U.S. Supreme Court for Reuters from Washington, D.C.

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has reported the quarantine was lifted effective Sept. 20, at the end of a 21-day waiting period after the commercial-scale farm was depopulated, cleaned and disinfected.

About 14,000 twelve-week-old ducks on the Niagara-region farm were euthanized and composted after an outbreak of low-path H5N2 avian influenza was confirmed there on July 8.

According to CFIA, the flu subtype in this case was of a North American lineage, and was a low-path version of a subtype seen in high-path outbreaks in Ontario last year and in British Columbia in 2014-15.

Low-path strains of avian flu aren’t considered as intense in terms of the illness caused in infected animals. However, low-path and high-path strains of H5 and H7 avian flu are all considered “notifiable” in Canada, meaning all cases must be reported to CFIA and are subject to control measures.

Trading partners such as the U.S. have previously put limits on imports of poultry and related products due to high-path bird flu outbreaks. Others, however, have been known to set up restrictions over a low-path outbreak, such as the low-path H5N2 cases at a Manitoba turkey farm in 2010.

In recent high- and low-path avian flu outbreaks, a three-month “enhanced” surveillance period has followed depopulation and disinfection at infected sites.

That surveillance period begins on the day the last infected premises in an outbreak completes its cleaning and disinfection — in this case, Aug. 30, according to CFIA officials.

If no new avian flu cases appear in the country over the three-month period, Canada may again declare itself free of notifiable avian flu at the end of that stretch. — AGCanada.com Network

CLARIFICATION, Oct. 6, 2016: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the three-month enhanced surveillance period, after which Canada could again declare as avian flu-free, began at the end of the farm’s 21-day waiting period.

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Friday confirmed the influenza subtype, the day after announcing the low-path H5 flu outbreak, the resulting quarantine and the plans for “depopulation” of birds at the affected farm.

CFIA on Friday set up a restricted three-kilometre control zone around the duck farm, according to the Feather Board Command Centre, the emergency response office for Ontario’s poultry and egg sectors.

All commercial poultry farms and small flock growers within the zone will be subjected to testing and will have to observe “industry restrictions regarding placing and shipping of birds,” the FBCC said.

A preliminary count puts one broiler farm and 23 small-flock operations inside the control zone, FBCC said. Licensing will be required for moving poultry in and out of the control zone, and a permitting process for such movements is “under development,” the centre added.

CFIA has begun tracing movements of birds and equipment on and off the affected farm, Dr. Harpreet Kochhar, the agency’s chief veterinary officer, said on a conference call Friday.

The duck farm remains the only site affected, but it’s possible that additional at-risk farms may be identified in coming days, he said. Poultry farms are urged to report any suspicious symptoms, he added.

In the meantime, the FBCC said, all poultry farms in Ontario are urged to “immediately” heighten biosecurity measures and monitor movement onto and off their farms.

Such biosecurity measures, the centre said, include making sure each farmer, employee and other person entering poultry barns puts on clean footwear and protective clothing and follows all biosecurity protocols on “every entry” into barns.

Visits to other poultry production sites should be restricted, the centre said. Any co-mingling of birds or contact with outside/wild birds should be avoided and “adequate control of wild birds and rodents” must be ensured.

All farm equipment and vehicles that “access the barn vicinity” must be properly washed and disinfected and barn laneways must be restricted/secured, the centre said. A pressure washer or a hose to wash tires and equipment should be made available for all such equipment and service vehicles.

Exchanging equipment with other poultry production sites should also be avoided, the centre said.

The index duck farm in this case was a commercial operation with about 14,000 birds around 12 weeks of age, Kochhar said. The farm operated with “appropriate biosecurity measures” and the birds were kept indoors without exposure to wildlife, he added.

The avian influenza subtype in this case is of a North American lineage, he said, and while the subtype seen in Ontario’s previous avian flu outbreak last year was also H5N2, the duck farm’s virus is a low-pathogenicity (“low-path”) version.

“The intensity of the illness it causes is much less in this particular outbreak,” he said.

Trading partners such as the U.S. have previously put limits on imports of poultry and related products due to high-path bird flu outbreaks.

Some other countries, however, have been known to set up restrictions over a low-path outbreak, such as the low-path H5N2 cases at a Manitoba turkey farm in 2010. — AGCanada.com Network

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on Thursday said the strain of avian influenza found in the birds on the farm is a low-pathogenic (“low-path”) H5 subtype. The agency said it would run further tests to pin down the virus’ exact strain and subtype in the next few days.

The farm, near St. Catharines, Ont., is now under quarantine, CFIA said, and the agency plans to set up a disease surveillance zone for further testing and movement control measures.

Once euthanized, the birds will be disposed of, CFIA said. The agency will then oversee the cleaning and disinfection of the farm’s barns, vehicles, equipment and tools. The provincial government will provide “technical support” on the carcass disposal, CFIA said.

CFIA, the province, the birds’ owner and the poultry industry are “working closely together to manage the situation,” the agency said. Ontario’s Feather Board Command Centre said Thursday it has advised all poultry growers to put “heightened biosecurity measures” in place.

H5 and H7 strains of avian flu are considered reportable diseases in Canada, and all cases must be reported to the CFIA and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Low-path H5 and H7 strains were decreed reportable diseases in Canada starting in 2012.

Where high-path strains of avian flu lead to severe symptoms and deaths among affected birds, low-path strains cause few symptoms — such as mild respiratory effects, reduced egg production and ruffled feathers — if any.

Outbreaks of low-path H5 and H7 strains are monitored, quarantined and eradicated mainly out of concern that the viruses may mutate into high-path strains. On rare occasions some strains, such as the high-path H5N1 strain present in Asia, can cause illness in people.

Avian flu, however, does not pose a risk to food safety when poultry and poultry products are properly handled and cooked, CFIA emphasized.

Canada’s most recent high-path outbreaks were last year on farms in British Columbia and southern Ontario. The country has been considered free of notifiable avian influenza since October.

Trading partners such as the U.S. usually restrict imports of poultry and poultry products from countries with avian flu, but only in cases involving a high-path outbreak.

Other countries, however, have been known to impose restrictions on Canadian poultry and related products citing a low-path outbreak, as seen in Manitoba in 2010. — AGCanada.com Network

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