Avian flu outbreak detected on poultry farm north of Montreal

A farm in Quebec's Lanaudiere region is dealing with an outbreak of avian flu.

A farm in Quebec’s Lanaudière region is dealing with an outbreak of avian flu.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reports that an outbreak of the H5N1 avian influenza virus was detected on Jan. 31 on a commercial poultry farm near Saint-Jean-de-Matha, Que., about 100 kilometres north of Montreal.

The federal agency has established a primary control zone in the area to limit the spread of infection.

It marks the first outbreak of the virus this year after avian flu started being detected in wild birds in Quebec in April 2022.

The CFIA detected two cases of avian influenza on Quebec poultry farms last November.

There have been 58 locations with avian flu detected in Quebec, with 1,465,500 birds impacted, according to the CFIA.

By comparison, British Columbia has recorded 220 locations with more than eight million birds infected, as well as the first-ever case of the virus being detected in a human in Canada.

A 13-year-old girl was intubated and put on life support in November after being infected and spent two months in hospital before being discharged.

Last month, the United States recorded its first death of a human infected with avian flu after a case in Louisiana.

Virus can ‘spread like wildfire’

Dr. Donald Vinh, an infectious diseases expert at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), said farms need to take “very draconian measures” when the virus is detected since “avian flu can spread like wildfire and be catastrophic to not only birds, but as we have found out in the last few years, to other types of mammals.”

“There are very controlled movements of all sorts of animals and equipment from that farm to other areas or going into the farm. So, it’s a very controlled situation, and I think that’s one of the advantages we have in Canada, including in Quebec, is we’re able to mobilize a rapid response to control outbreaks when they occur on farms and, so far, we’ve been very lucky,” he told CTV News.

Vinh said there are currently two strains of the virus that are concerning: the B3.13 strain, which is found to spread to other mammals and the D1.1 strain, which can spread to other mammals; in humans, it is “more of a concern.”

Until officials get a better handle on the situation in Quebec, they say they can’t think the “species barrier is what’s going to protect humans. I think that we can forget about that idea,” Vinh added.

“We have mitigation measures in place but we can’t be under the pretence that those are going to protect us indefinitely.”

Last week, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced the purchase of half a million doses of GSK’s human vaccine against avian influenza to be used to protect people who are at a higher risk of being exposed.

Vinh said the recent purchase shows that Canada is being proactive against avian flu and expects people working in agriculture will likely be the first to receive the vaccine.

With files from CTV News Montreal’s Caroline Van Vlaardingen