Canada finds bird flu case, plans further testing

Canada finds bird flu case, plans further testing

Canada has detected a case of H5 avian flu in the eastern province of Prince Edward Island and plans further testing over the weekend to determine whether it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, government officials announced on Friday.

A gosling in a small backyard poultry flock in the western end of the tiny province contracted the disease but there is a low risk of human illness from the outbreak, officials said.

The last Canadian outbreak occurred in November 2005 on the other side of the country, in British Columbia, and involved low-pathogenic H5N2 strain. In that case no birds actually showed signs of illness but 60,000 ducks and geese were culled nonetheless.

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Well, let's see what they find....


[edit on 16-6-2006 by loam]

Second PEI farm ordered quarantined

A second Prince Edward Island farm has been placed under a quarantine order as a precautionary measure as authorities investigate the finding of an H5 avian flu virus in a domestic goose in the province...

It will be tomorrow or Wednesday at the earliest before lab testing confirms whether the virus was truly an H5, and whether it was a highly pathogenic form or a virus of low pathogenicity... The CFIA's National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases in Winnipeg will also be looking to determine whether the virus is of a North American lineage or is one of the Asian viruses.

Is anyone else extremely alarmed that this virus has now spread world-wide? How much longer before it spreads across Canada to B.C, and then south down to Texas and, even further, South America?