Credit City of St. John's
#16,475
Nine days ago, in Canada: N.L. Reports HPAI H5N1 in Captive Birds, we looked at the first reports avian flu on the remote Avalon Peninsula on the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador. Early analysis found the virus belong to clade 2.3.4.4B, which is the same Eurasian lineage that is currently sparking a major epizootic in Europe.
While North America has been spared any large avian epizootics since the spring of 2015, we've seen numerous studies on how migratory birds - from either Asia or Europe - could cross oceans bringing the virus with them, including PLoS One: North Atlantic Flyways Provide Opportunities For Spread Of Avian Influenza Viruses).
Yesterday the City of St. John's - which is the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador - issued the following statement on their Facebook page.
City of St. John's
In response to recent testing, Environment and Natural Resources in Canada has confirmed the presence of the highly pathogenic avian flu in wild birds in the St. John's area, including Bowring Park, Quidi Vidi Lake and other areas frequented by flocks of birds.
The public are asked to refrain from feeding, touching or handling wild birds including ducks, pigeons and gulls. http://www.stjohns.ca/media.../refrain-feeding-wild-birds
A report from CBC.ca (see Avian flu discovered in birds around St. John's, Environment Canada says) confirms this to be the same HPAI H5N1 reported before Christmas.
As I mentioned in my first report, this has the potential to spread, as pointed out in the follow notice posted on the AASV website.
December 29, 2021 —
The recent detection of an H5N1 high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) virus in Newfoundland, Canada represents the first identification of goose/Guangdong/1/96-lineage (Gs/GD/96) H5 HPAI virus in the Americas since June 2015. This is cause for concern for wild birds, zoological collections, and poultry in the Americas.Some east coast states of the United States of America (USA) are home to very large poultry populations that could be at risk of exposure and outbreaks in the next few months. This finding raises concerns about the potential of this virus becoming established in the Americas within migratory and resident birds. [Source: OFFLU 23 December 2021]
Read the full statement at https://www.offlu.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/OFFLU-statement_Newfoundland__H5N1.pdf.
While we may get luckier than we did in 2015 - when we saw North America's worst avian epizootic on record - these reports should remind poultry producers that we are not immune to HPAI - that migratory birds can cross oceans - and that now is a good time to review their biosecurity.
