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Less than a year after Ontario was declared free of avian influenza, 14,000 ducks will be killed after the virus was found on a commercial farm in St. Catharines, Ont.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency released a statement Friday that the virus was found in the 12-week old birds, and continued testing will be used to confirm which strain is present, though it is connected to the H5N2 strain.
The CFIA says the highly contagious virus has the potential to hit other farms in the area in the coming days.
The infected farm raises only ducks, most of which are around 12 weeks of age, and have now been placed under quarantine to control disease spread.
The CFIA is in the early stages of doing a full epidemiological investigation, said Dr. Harpreet Kochhar, Chief Veterinary Officer of Operations at the agency.
The CFIA says there’s no reason to be afraid.
“Avian influenza does not pose a risk to food safety when poultry and poultry products are properly handled and cooked and rarely affects humans,” Kochhar said.
The first steps for the agency are to identify the strain, set up a surveillance zone and maintain the appropriate bio-security measures on the quarantined farm.
“We’re trying to figure out what would make sense in terms of the high risk contact farms,” said Kochhar. The goal being to “contain the virus as well as have commerce in the rest of Ontario.”
“Were working diligently to get to that level,” he said.
Courtesy of cbc.ca
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