Seven poultry farms affected by bird flu in Ontario

Seven poultry farms in southwestern Ontario are under quarantine after an outbreak of avian flu, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

These are four farms nearIngersollin the county ofOxfordtwo to Strathroywest of Londonand one to North Middlesex.

The first cases of the disease were identified on December 14, underlines the federal agency, which indicates that the virus was transmitted in the region through migratory birds.

The disease is usually spread by direct contact with wild birds or indirectly through feces or contaminated water, soil or food says Ontario Avian Flu Response Commander Grant Loney.

Health Canada emphasizes (New window) that a person can contract the disease when[elle] touches an object that has the virus on it, then touches your mouth, nose or eyes.

Grant Loney says a 10 kilometer control zone should be set up around farms affected by avian flu to ensure poultry or poultry products exposed to birds entering and leaving the zone are tested regularly.

This helps reduce the spread and there are also export requirements, so we have created zones to allow trade from one country to another adds M. Loney.

Grant Loney indicates that theACIA is notified of potential viruses by farmers when they notice abnormalities or a high number of poultry deaths. Farms are generally placed in quarantine until the cause of this high mortality is determined.

Quarantine measures can only be lifted after a period of 21 days without new infections in the area, explains Mr. Loney, who specifies that all infected birds must first be euthanized and the premises must be disinfected.

The process of lifting the quarantine is long. There is no fixed duration […] but on average, it takes a few months before a quarantine is lifted.

British Columbia, the most affected province

On its website, theACIA indicates that as of December 27, more than a million birds had been affected by avian flu in the seven outbreaks.

The highest number of outbreaks is in British Columbia, where there were 64 as of December 27 and more than 8 million birds affected.

Last week, health authorities in this province indicated in a letter sent to the New England Journal of Medicine that a 13-year-old girl who tested positive for the H5N1 avian flu virus last November was no longer contagious and no longer required respiratory assistance.

The source of his exposure to the virus is still not known.

Health Canada specifies that there is no no evidence of ongoing transmission between people, even if there are reports of possible limited human-to-human transmission in other parts of the world.

The federal agency also emphasizes that the disease cannot be contracted by eating well-cooked poultry, meat or eggs.

With reporting from CBC’s Matt Allen