Poultry farmers in Quebec are grappling with a series of outbreaks of deadly avian flu, as the number of birds that have died or been euthanized due to the disease since early last year nears the one million mark.
Sylvain Junior Henrie, who co-owns Ferme La Caboche in Rimouski, Que., said poultry farmers are all taking extra precautions.
At his farm northeast of Quebec City, people change boots and coveralls before entering any buildings. HeB次元官网网址檚 waiting until later in the year to put his flock outside, and heB次元官网网址檚 invested in mobile shelters and a series of tarps and canvas to ensure that wild birds canB次元官网网址檛 mix with his organic chickens, ducks and turkeys.
B次元官网网址淭he important thing is not to bring something from the outside into our breeding areas,B次元官网网址� Henrie said.
Henrie and others farmers in his region have so far been spared, but the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus is having a widespread impact on poultry farming in the province, from anxiety for farmers to a shortage of the drug used to euthanize infected flocks.
As of Friday, 20 locations in the province were considered actively infected. Alberta had the next highest number of infected sites with 11, followed by British Columbia with eight. More than 7.6 million birds in Canada have either died or been euthanized due to the flu since last year, including 945,000 in Quebec.
On April 26, the Quebec government implemented new rules that banned exhibitions, fairs or sales where birds from different locations come together.
Martin Pelletier, a spokesman for a group that monitors poultry disease in Quebec, said there have already been more outbreaks this year than all of last.
B次元官网网址淲e expected to have cases this year, and itB次元官网网址檚 certain that weB次元官网网址檝e had more than expected,B次元官网网址� he said. Pelletier, who is general manager of the 脡quipe qu茅b茅coise de contr么le des maladies avicoles, said cases can rise in the spring due to the return of migratory birds that carry the disease.
Jean-Pierre Vaillancourt, a professor at the Universit茅 de Montr茅al veterinary school, said the current outbreaks are concentrated in a cluster of farms in the Mont茅r茅gie region, east of Montreal. He said the proximity of farms B次元官网网址� some as close as 200 metres from each other B次元官网网址� can create problems if employees, equipment or facilities are shared.
B次元官网网址淲e have a situation where you have a lot of farms very close to one another,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淪o, that created this kind of series of outbreaks.B次元官网网址�
He said some of the farms involved are duck farms, which create heightened risk because ducks tend to carry the disease for longer before showing symptoms.
Vaillancourt said that, with the exception of Quebec, cases in the rest of Canada and the United States are far lower than last year. But the outbreak is still raising many concerns, including the environmental challenges of disposing of carcasses and the social acceptability of killing tens of thousands of birds at a time.
He said avian flu is also B次元官网网址渄evastating on many levelsB次元官网网址� for producers who have to watch their entire flocks destroyed. While theyB次元官网网址檙e compensated for the lost birds, production disruptions can take months to overcome, harming rural economies that depend on farming jobs.
Animal welfare is also a big concern, he said. Flocks where the virus is found are euthanized, partly to spare them a slow death from disease. However, he said carbon dioxide B次元官网网址� the gas of choice for euthanizing the birds B次元官网网址� is currently in short supply because there is so much demand for making carbonated drinks and other uses.
B次元官网网址淚t may even delay the slaughter of some flocks, and it has some direct welfare implications there,B次元官网网址� he said.
Henrie said a flu outbreak would be devastating for a family farm like his.
B次元官网网址淎ll our savings are (in the farm),B次元官网网址� he said, adding that the price of producing organically is higher. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a lot of time too, so rather than lose a farm like ours we prefer to take upstream measures to make sure the virus doesnB次元官网网址檛 get in.B次元官网网址�
In his opinion, the H5N1 outbreak should make people question massive industrial productions, which make diseases harder to contain and mean mass deaths if the flu enters.
Vaillancourt said avian flu has been discovered in 274 bird species, as well as dozens of mammals including seals, foxes and raccoons.
Public health agencies in Canada, the U.S. and Europe agree the risk to human health remains low, with cases almost always limited to direct contact with infected birds or environments, such as a poultry barn. There is no risk associated with eating thoroughly cooked poultry products.
However, researchers are keeping a close eye on how H5N1 evolves. In a paper published earlier this year, scientists with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency looked at cases in 40 different wild mammals and found the virus had undergone some B次元官网网址渃ritical mutations,B次元官网网址� though the agency said the chances of human spillover remains minimal.
Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
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