VANCOUVER — By some measures, the ongoing outbreaks of avian flu in British Columbia pale when compared to the devastating eruption of the disease in 2004 that prompted a cull of 17 million birds.
But the enemy that farmers and scientists now face represents an unprecedented challenge, experts say.
The current H5N1 strain is “behaving very differently” to previous versions, says British Columbia chief veterinarian Theresa Burns.
Unlike previous strains that were isolated in geography, the new threat is spreading across the country. The strain is highly pathogenic and can cause serious disease and death in birds.
“The scale is completely different,” Burns said in an interview, compared to previous B.C. outbreaks in 2004, 2009 and 2014.
“In all those other outbreaks, B.C. was the only province impacted, and it was only in the Fraser Valley. Now we’re seeing all across Canada, North America and Europe impacted.”
This year, H5N1 has infected about 200 flocks with more than 3.5 million birds Canada-wide. Worryingly, deaths of wild birds are spiking, amid fears the disease has become endemic in Canada.
The disease, which has spread across Asia and Europe and can occasionally infect humans, emerged in Canada for the first time in six years when it was identified in Newfoundland in December 2021.
Earl Brown, a flu virologist at the University of Ottawa, said at the time it was likely an infected waterfowl had been blown across the North Atlantic to Newfoundland.
Since then, further outbreaks have been detected in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan.
“This particular strain, the H5N1 virus, is causing increased mortalities in many of our wild bird species, and when it gets into poultry flocks, it’s also causing increased mortality,” Burns said.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, or CFIA, said it believes migratory birds are responsible for the outbreaks in small and commercial poultry flocks.
The agency’s latest available data shows there have been 203 infected flocks countrywide, affecting 3,632,000 birds, as of Nov. 3.
It also reported 1,442 confirmed cases of avian flu in wild birds across Canada, but Burns said the number is likely much higher because as it is impossible to determine how many wild animals have died.
“For (avian flu) to be detected in a wild bird, first you have to find the carcass, then the carcass has to get submitted to the lab, then it has to be tested. So, we imagine that there’s many birds that might be dying that we’re not able to detect.”
Ray Nickel, spokesman for the B.C. Poultry Association Emergency Operations Centre, said farmers are now worried the virus is becoming endemic in wild bird populations.
Avian flu is spread through contact with an infected bird or its feces or nasal secretions. Farm birds that go outside are most at risk because they can come in direct contact with infected wild birds or their feces.
Humans can also inadvertently carry the infection into a barn on their shoes or clothing.
Nickel said the scale of the spread of H5N1 had one benefit — it has prompted more co-ordination between farmers, CFIA and various levels of government.
“(Communication) is way bigger this year than ever,” he said. “Discussions are now happening on a national and international basis, rather than just on an individual provincial basis.”
Nickel, a commercial poultry farmer in Abbotsford and member of the BC Chicken Marketing Board, said B.C. has not suffered terrible loss when compared to other provinces and previous seasons.
The 2004 outbreak in the Fraser Valley, for instance, involved the H7N3 strain, which spread to 42 commercial farms and 11 backyard coops, prompting federal officials to order the mass cull of about 17 million birds.
CFIA statistics show 28 flocks in B.C., with 275,700 birds, have been infected by avian flu this year.
“We’ve evolved to a certain degree in our industry to pay attention to biosecurity and keeping our farms as safe as possible,” Nickel said. “We’re also not seeing a lot of historic issues that we used to be most worried about (like) spread from one infected farm to another. Now, it seems to be happening more randomly.”
Biosecurity and emergency management measures introduced after the 2004 outbreak helped to control the spread of the virus in 2009 and 2014. Each outbreak has allowed the province and its farmers to improve and refine its response, Nickel said.
The poultry association has an emergency response team that operates using an incident command structure, similar to fire and police services, allowing the team to respond quickly when flu is found, he said. Protocols include strict procedures around locked gates, changing clothing and footwear, and monitoring entrances and exits.
“The heightened level of concern around biosecurity, I think, has gotten even more intense, not only in B.C., but across the country,” Nickel said in an interview.
However, he warns that the demands and requirements of the emergency response team is creating burnout among members.
“We are getting tired. It’s exhausting to be on all the time,” Nickel said. “We are having to rethink how we are going to manage this going forward.”
Canada currently has a “stamping out policy,” which means birds are euthanized when the virus is detected in a flock, Burns explained.
“There’s really two reasons: the birds are really sick and there is no viable treatment to prevent spread,” she said.
But, experts from around the world are debating whether an avian flu vaccine would be a viable solution.
“Given the unprecedented nature of this outbreak, certainly vaccination is being revisited as a possible control strategy internationally,” Burns said.
“There are no licensed vaccines in Canada at this time for poultry and that’s because up until now, stamping out has been our best course of action, (but) the CFIA is working with international partners to continue that vaccination discussion.”
Considerations for whether a vaccine would work include administration method, cost and the risk of vaccinated birds spreading the virus undetected.
“So, there are some real challenges with vaccination and we need to really understand those before we can determine if it’s a viable strategy, and the CFIA, of course, would make those decisions,” she said.
The CFIA said no human cases have been detected in Canada and the illness is not considered a significant health concern for healthy people who are not in regular contact with infected birds.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2022.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
