Wild birds will come under increased scrutiny this year, as Canada keeps watch for the H5NI strain of avian influenza.
Thousands of wild birds will be tested, including birds that migrate across the Atlantic Ocean.
The surveillance could provide early detection of the H5N1 virus if it appears in Canada. The monitoring will also provide information about the various influenza viruses carried by wild bird species, said Ted Leighton, executive director of the Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Centre.
H5N1 is highly contagious among birds and also poses health risks to humans. There is no “particularly good evidence” that migrating birds are moving the virus around, Leighton said. However, the possibility exists, and that is why Canada will be testing live birds that migrate across the Atlantic Ocean while the United States will be testing birds crossing the Pacific.
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“The Americans are looking very heavily at the trans-Pacific route,” said Leighton. “They’re doing a massive amount of sampling in Alaska, for example, which would be the touchdown zone for any virus that came that way, and also on the Pacific flyway.
“Canada’s contribution to that continental vigilance is going to be looking at the possibility that the (H5N1) virus might move from Europe or Africa, where it also is, to Canada through trans-Atlantic migration. That means a focus on eastern and eastern Arctic Canada in terms of live bird sampling.”
The sampling of dead birds will be more general across the country. If it was to find an unusual number of deaths among wild birds, that would be one factor to watch. As part of the surveillance, about 12,000 samples will be taken for testing from live and dead birds across Canada this year.
