Eight skunks found dead in Richmond and Vancouver in late February have tested positive for avian influenza, a highly virulent disease responsible for decimating flocks of domestic poultry.
B.C.’s chief veterinarian Theresa Burns said the skunks were initially turned over to B.C.’s Animal Health Centre under suspicions they had been poisoned in residential areas of the cities. But testing later revealed they were infected with the same strain of the H1N1 bird flu virus that has swept into farms in a series of outbreaks across the world.
Burns said this is the first time such a large cluster of H5N1-infected mammals have been found in a single geographic area.
“We’re looking for signs of mammalian adaptation,” said Burns. “That will help us determine: is there increased human health risk?”
The skunks likely became infected after eating dead wild birds carrying the virus, said Burns. She repeated the Ministry of Agriculture and Food message, released in a press release Monday, that avian flu continues to pose a “low risk to human health.”
The eight skunks add to millions of wild and domestic animals that have been infected with bird flu since an international series emerged early in 2022. Since then, outbreaks have swept North America, Europe and Asia over the past year.
Half of the nearly 7.2 million domestic birds impacted by avian flu across Canada since 2022 have been identified in B.C., according to the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency (CFIA). The spread of highly-pathogenic strains had led to massive culls in farms across Canada and elsewhere. CFIA says there is no evidence to suggest eating cooked poultry or eggs could transmit one of the highly virulent strains of bird flu to humans.
Keep pets away amid ongoing investigation
A ministry lab in Abbotsford, B.C., has done post-mortem inspections on two of eight skunks so far. Samples from that lab were sent to the BC Centre for Disease Control for genomic testing, which confirmed the strain infecting the skunks was the same one running through poultry farms.
Burns said they are also still trying to track down exactly where the skunks were found, something that’s expected to take two weeks. In the meantime, the Ministry of Forests is working with cities in the region to look for increased reporting of dead skunks, and Burns says her team has notified wildlife rehabilitation centres to remain alert.
The ministry is warning pet owners to keep away from dead animals. Anyone finding a dead animal should leave it where it is and contact the B.C. Wildlife Health Program at 250-751-7246.
Dead skunks part of international series of outbreaks
Avian flu occurs naturally in wild birds in the northern hemisphere. The virus can jump from wild birds into poultry flocks through shared outdoor ponds or open buildings.
Scientists have isolated variants of the influenza virus in more than 100 wild bird species worldwide, from waterfowl like geese, swans, ducks and gulls to shoreline species like sandpipers, plovers and storks, said Ronald Ydenberg, a professor of behavioural ecology and director of Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Wildlife Ecology.
“There is likely always some spillover to other species. So by itself, I wouldn’t be awfully alarmed,” Ydenberg said. “But it is a signal that whatever is out there at the moment is jumping into some other species.”
The latest series of outbreaks has seen the virus jump from birds into mammals. Across the United States, H1N1 has been isolated in foxes, bears, wild cats, coyotes, seals, raccoons and opossums. Infected skunks have been found in highest concentrations across the U.S. Pacific Northwest, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative has tracked nearly 1,800 confirmed or suspected positive cases of avian influenza in wild animals since late 2021. Those have mostly come back from a variety of bird species but have also included seals, foxes, bears and skunks.
“This is a little bit different,” said Burns of the skunks found in Vancouver and Richmond, “because we’ve seen multiple skunks that are in a fairly close urban region as opposed to sort of these isolated cases in rural areas.”
Vigilance suggested amid ‘low risk’ of human infection
At a global level, the spillover of bird flu into mammals “needs to be monitored closely,” said World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a Feb. 8 press conference.
Since H5N1 first emerged in 1996, UN health agency’s chief said there has been “rare and non-sustained” transmission of the virus into and between humans.
“But we cannot assume that we remain the case and we must prepare for any change in the status quo,” he added.
According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, human infection from bird flu can happen when the virus is inhaled or gets into a person’s eyes, nose or mouth.
Since 2020, a handful of human infections have been isolated, often after people had sustained contact with infected poultry. In November 2022, an adult in China developed an H5N1 infection and later died. And in a highly publicized recent case, a young girl in Cambodia did not survive after she was infected with a similar highly virulent strain of bird flu.
But a wider spillover into humans is less likely, said SFU’s Ydenberg, who strongly suspects such an event would almost certainly occur a place like Southeast Asia, where people live in closer contact to domestic birds.
“The notable thing is that there are so few human deaths reported — at this point,” he said.
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.
