Newfoundland and Labrador’s murre population appeared healthy over winter, according to seabird expert Bill Montevecchi. (Submitted by Ian L. Jones)
A deadly strain of avian influenza that swept through seabird colonies in Newfoundland and Labrador last summer and early fall is still a cause for concern heading into a new year, warns one expert.
Bill Montevecchi, a seabird biologist with Memorial University, said the province’s colonies were “hammered” by the disease last year, resulting in the death of tens of thousands of birds of varying species, many of which washed up on coastal shores and beaches to the bewilderment of experts, hunters and bird enthusiasts.
“We started out last April, we had this huge die off of murres due to ice conditions on the southern Labrador coast. That took out, we’re sure, thousands of birds and then right after that, it was in May when the virus started showing up on the west coast,” Montevecchi told CBC News on Monday.
“Then it went all summer. Tens of thousands of murres, the same for gannets as well. [It was] a huge impact and those will be the questions this summer as we go back to the colonies. Will we see gaps or will those gaps be filled in by non-breeding birds?”
Montevecchi said the birds are resilient, but climate change, on top of the avian flu, is compromising the populations.
He said experts are hoping for the best this summer but are remaining realistic as they watch the colonies closely.
Thousands of dead birds, like this gannet in Point Lance, washed up on the coastlines of Newfoundland and Labrador last year. (Patrick Butler/Radio-Canada)
“That mortality from the spring event and the mortality from the virus, these are unprecedented. It has never happened at that level before,” he said.
“And it’s ongoing because, like COVID, the expectation is that the birds will still be carrying some of that virus and the question is will it be lethal or what will be the consequences.”
Montevecchi said it’s difficult to predict how the seabird populations will fare this summer.
The first cases of avian influenza were tracked to the Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve in early June. Montevecchi said scientists were “terrified” it would wipe out the colony.
But the hit to the population didn’t happen until late July, he said, and experts still don’t have an answer as to why.
Bill Montevecchi is a marine bird expert with Memorial University. (Josée Basque/Radio-Canada)
“The water temperature heated up abnormally, such that we had a heat wave by the end of July, and we think — we can’t prove it — maybe that added stress of the hot water that made it hard for the parents to get food for their young, they’re carrying the virus and that the stress just put them over the edge,” Montevecchi said.
“It depends on a combination of things. It seems like the animal sometimes could have the virus and survive but if the situation is stressful it might just push the bird over the edge. It’s that really complex combination of things that will determine how it plays out.”
But the winter showed some positive signs for the murre population.
Montevecchi said there was a reduction in the annual winter hunt in terms of the amount of people actively partaking in the event.
He said many hunters didn’t go out of concern the virus still lingered, but those who did hunt reported healthy birds.
“Basic reports that came back from hunters was that one, there were a lot of birds and the birds were all in good condition, and also Environment Canada, to my understanding, has been testing these birds for the virus and has yet to pick up any positive signs of the virus,” said Montevecchi.
“So it looks like there was a reduction in the hunt, which would give the murres a reprieve, and the hunters who did hunt seemed to do well seemed to do well, got good birds and the birds, as best we can tell, seemed to be healthy. What happens this summer when the weather warms up, that remains to be seen.”
CBC Newfoundland Morning10:35It’s been a year now since the avian flu made its way to the island of Newfoundland. We checked in with biologist Bill Montevecchi
Last year this time, word of the avian influenza was just beginning to spread across Newfoundland and Labrador. The virus ended up wiping out thousands of seabirds along our shores in the summer… especially turr and gannet populations.To get the latest on the impacts of the avian flu, we contacted local seabird biologist Bill Montevecchi.
Meanwhile, the two resident swans of Bowring Park in St. John’s along with seven ducks have died, the city confirmed in a statement on Friday, adding it believes the cause of death was avian influenza.
“The young swan appeared to be sick and died quickly; one week later the older swan was found dead in the duck pond [in] Bowring Park,” the statement reads. “The older swan, along with seven ducks found dead in the pond, have been sent away for testing and appear to have died of avian flu.”
The city is asking the public to refrain from feeding the birds in Bowring Park, noting there are several signs on site discouraging the act but people are still doing it.
“We ask individuals to please stop feeding birds. As long as the practice continues, we are concerned that we will see more fatalities,” reads the city’s statement.
“We have discussed these deaths with those responsible for tracking, testing and monitoring avian flu. They have advised that avian flu is increasing in the area, so mortality is to be expected.”
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
