- WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Canada is investigating a second backyard
poultry flock for bird flu, although all birds remain healthy, authorities
said on Sunday.
-
- "A quarantine has been instituted
at that premise and it's because there's been contact either with live
birds or through foot traffic and potential contamination with the original
infected farm," said Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarian
Jim Clark.
-
- The CFIA announced on Friday it had detected
a case of H5 avian flu in a gosling from a backyard poultry flock after
four goslings died, in the eastern province of Prince Edward Island.
-
- Test results are expected on Tuesday,
to confirm if the virus is a North American or Asian strain. If there is
enough virus present, the CFIA will be able to determine whether it is
a high or low pathogen strain.
- "There's no direct evidence that
the influenza virus was the cause of the problem in the four birds that
died," Clark added.
-
- All birds on the second farm, adjacent
to the original farm, remain healthy and the CFIA has taken some swab samples
to determine if the virus exists on that farm.
-
- The noncommercial flock of 35 to 40 ducks,
geese and chickens on the original farm were euthanized by the CFIA on
Friday. Clark said he was not aware of any human illness linked to the
virus.
-
- The CFIA has said there is no evidence
the case involves the high-pathogen H5N1 strain that has spread to 48 countries
since 2003. H5N1 has not been discovered in the Americas.
-
- © Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
|
