Highly pathogenic avian flu has disastrous consequences in Quebec

More than 500,000 poultry farm birds in Quebec have died or been culled due to exposure to the infectious disease; some wild birds have been affected as well.

A pelican suspected to have died from H5N1 avian influenza is seen on a beach in Lima, on Dec. 1, 2022. The highly contagious H5N1 avian flu virus has killed thousands of pelicans, blue-footed boobies and other seabirds in Peru, according to the National Forestry and Wildlife Service (SERFOR). Photo by ERNESTO BENAVIDES /AFP via Getty Images

Every fall, Francis Lauzier walks the shoreline of the Richelieu River near his home in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu to see the snow geese congregate by the thousands.

“There are so many, they look like a blanket of snow covering the river,” he said.

But in late November he spotted something he’d never seen before: groups of three to five birds were dotted everywhere along the river’s edge, huddled together in death. He counted more than 200 dead snow geese in the span of four kilometres. In one spot he saw raccoons feasting on the carcasses.

“It was very, very sad,” he said. “And eerie.”

Mary Williams had a similar experience while walking with a friend on Nov. 29 in the same region, roughly 35 kilometres southeast of Montreal.

“There were so many dead birds, it was unbelievable,” said the resident of Ste-Thérèse, an island in the Richelieu River. “We were really spooked.”

A Parks Canada employee wearing protective clothing and a specialized mask was collecting the bodies. Employees in two more trucks would join her. It’s the avian flu, she told them.

More specifically, it was the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), a deadly strain of the bird flu that is causing the “most devastating” outbreak ever in Europe and the United States, and is being seen for the first time in Quebec, with disastrous consequences.

To date, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has recorded 532,000 birds that have died or had to be culled due to exposure to the disease on 23 poultry farms in Quebec. Eleven outbreaks were still listed as “ongoing” as of Tuesday. Farms in British Columbia and Alberta have been even harder hit, suffering 2.9 million and 1.2 million deaths, respectively. More than six million birds — primarily chickens, turkeys and ducks — have been culled on commercial farms in Canada in the past 12 months, with outbreaks hitting every province except Prince Edward Island.

In the United States, a record 55 million birds in 47 states have died or been culled.

“This is something we’ve never had before; it’s the highest-risk strain our farmers have ever faced,” said Jean-Pierre Vaillancourt, a professor at the Université de Montréal’s veterinary school who specializes in the control of infectious diseases. “Worldwide, it’s a pandemic really of highly pathogenic avian influenza. It’s in over 65 countries.”

The first cases of H5N1 in Quebec were detected in April in geese, presumed to have been infected by birds who migrated from Europe. Ducks in particular can carry the disease without getting sick, but transmit it through their secretions or feces. Wild birds can contact commercial livestock, which sometimes reside outdoors, or contaminated soil or straw can be tracked into farms on tractor tires or boots.

In mid-April, Brome Lake Ducks in the Eastern Townships announced three of their 13 facilities had been hit. The company had to kill 150,000 birds and destroy 400,000 Pekin duck eggs, and lay off 300 staff, the largest cull in the company’s 110-year history. Because the losses made up almost all of the company’s breeding stock, it would take up to a year to get back to full capacity, management said. Since insurance companies don’t compensate for bird mortalities, Brome Lake Ducks is expected to lose millions.

Diseased birds may display a lack of appetite and energy, respiratory problems like coughing and sneezing, and swollen heads, Quebec’s Agriculture Ministry notes. Because the disease is extremely infectious and has an incubation period of up to 14 days, authorities will order the culling of all birds in a barn within hours of a positive test. There is no known treatment.

Although less common in wild birds, the disease does affect certain species, including those who eat infected geese, like gulls, raptors, turkey vultures and hawks, said veterinarian Stéphane Lair, regional director for the Quebec branch of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, which is helping to monitor the crisis. Marine birds living in cramped colonies were also affected. The carcasses of thousands of northern gannets were found on the shores of the Îles de la Madeleine this summer.

There have been a few cases of the disease transferring to mammals, including raccoons, foxes, possums and minks. Close to 100 dead harbour seals were found along the banks of the Lower St. Lawrence this year as of August, about six times the usual rate of mortality. At least 15 tested positive for avian flu.

The virus can transfer to people, although cases are extremely rare. There is no evidence to suggest eating cooked poultry or eggs could transmit the disease to humans. But Lair cautions that “influenza viruses are known to evolve, so there’s nothing telling us that this flu is not going to change at one point. You don’t want to be in contact with dead or sick birds.”

Because the virus hits mainly Canada Geese and snow geese which are now migrating south, numbers of infections are expected to drop over the winter.

At present, the virus has only hit a small fraction of the wild bird population and the roughly 1,200 commercial chicken and turkey farms in Quebec, Vaillancourt said. Scientists postulate that numbers have been higher in western Canada because there are more poultry farms, many of which are in close proximity, and more geese farms in which birds live outdoors.

The widespread transmission of the disease in Europe, with the number of cases on farms growing by 35 per cent this autumn, brings fears the outbreak will not end quickly, as others have done in the past.

“It’s the question no one has the answer for,” Lair said. “This virus first appeared in Europe and has been circulating there for two years now, so it doesn’t seem to go away very fast.

“So we should have to expect another year for sure.”

[email protected]