wild birds are largely responsible for the spread of avian influenza in b.c., with new cases being detected on commercial poultry farms each day, including four on friday and 10 more in the seven days before that.
the scale of the outbreak is unprecedented, said b.c.’s chief veterinarian theresa burns, whether you count from december 2021 when the first case of h5n1 appeared in canada, or look only at b.c. this year.
b.c. cases make up about half of all canadian cases in an outbreak that is devastating poultry and wild bird populations around the world, while posing a continuing risk to humans. the who has warned that increasing detection in mammals , like cats, dogs, seals and sea lions, raises concerns that the virus might adapt to infect humans more easily.
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b.c. provincial health office bonnie henry has urged people who live or work on poultry farms to get a flu shot . although the bird flu doesn’t easily spread to people, it’s possible, and a person infected with both the human and bird virus could “create a new influenza virus that could be more infectious to humans,” she said.
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brittain said the poultry association is following research being done in b.c. and around the world. france has decided to vaccinate 64 million ducks against h5n1, although the move prevents them from exporting the birds because vaccination makes it hard to detect bird flu.
last winter, infections in b.c. peaked in mid-december. the same could happen this year, with another bump in the spring when migrating birds return.
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