Ontario poultry industry on high alert following discovery of bird flu on Woodstock farm

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials are to euthanize thousands of turkeys today on a Woodstock-area commercial turkey operation confirmed to have H5 avian influenza.

Paul Mayers, Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) vice president of policy and programs, said during a telephone technical briefing Tuesday afternoon the agency’s National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease lab in Winnipeg hasn’t yet completed testing to confirm the severity of the virus. The agency also hasn’t yet determined the cause of Ontario’s outbreak.

Ontario poultry industry officials, however, are already referring to the avian influenza in the province as “suspect highly pathogenic.” An April 6 press release from the Feather Board Command Centre posted on Chicken Farmers of Ontario’s website, says preliminary testing by the Animal Health lab at the University of Guelph has confirmed the presence of “highly pathogenic” H5 avian influenza on the Woodstock farm.

The virus poses a risk to all types of commercial poultry production.

The command centre is the poultry industry’s disease management organization made up of the four poultry boards – Chicken Farmers of Ontario, Turkey Farmers of Ontario, Egg Farmers of Ontario and the Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission. Command centre chair Ingrid DeVisser said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon the command centre has been activated in response to the outbreak in Ontario.

“Everyone in the province, not just in the zone, has been made aware,” said DeVisser, past chair of Turkey Farmers of Ontario. “We’ve all made sure our biosecurity protocols are up-to-date and are being followed.”

Other farms quarantined

The original Ontario farm confirmed to have avian influenza, commonly called the index farm, and another nearby farm was put under quarantine Monday “to control disease spread,” Mayers said.  On Tuesday CFIA put six other area farms under quarantine as a precaution. The six additional farms are within a five-kilometre radius of the index farm.

Additional farms could also be quarantined in the coming days as avian influenza is highly contagious and can spread rapidly. Agency officials have not indicated what type of poultry operations are under the quarantine.

Avian influenza doesn’t pose a risk to food safety when poultry and poultry products are properly handled and cooked, Mayers said, noting the disease rarely affects humans who don’t have consistent contact with infected birds.

Ontario’s chief veterinarian Greg Douglas said the index farm had 12,000 turkeys in four barns. “Between April 3 and 7 there were approximately 7,500 mortalities. We have no other reports of mortalities on other premises in the region.”

The index farm is located “in a concentrated area of poultry production,” he said.

Mayers said so far only the index farm is confirmed to have avian influenza and that’s the only farm where birds are currently being euthanized. But it’s possible if other farms are confirmed to have avian influenza they “will have to face depopulation.”

The farmer will be compensated for the birds CFIA ordered to be euthanized, Mayers noted.

To date, aside from the index farm, none of the other seven farms under quarantine have reported higher than normal bird deaths, Mayers and Douglas said.

Mayers said “at this time, it is too early to tell if this finding in Ontario is linked with the outbreak currently happening in several” states in the United States or with the specific strain that hit British Columbia poultry farms in December. “Given that the virus can be spread through migratory birds this is certainly a possibility we are exploring in our investigation.”

Trade implications

Mayers said Ontario’s avian influenza outbreak is already having trade implications. Taiwan and Japan have placed temporary restrictions on Ontario poultry and poultry products.

Marco Valicenti, acting director of the market access secretariat at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, said the temporary trade restrictions imposed by Japan and Taiwan were installed within the past 24 hours. There are 10 other countries that placed temporary trade restrictions on Canadian poultry and poultry products due to the British Columbia outbreak in December.

Those previous trade restrictions are still in place, he said.

Some of the previous restrictions apply to Canadian poultry and poultry products while some only apply to products from the B.C. region.

Valicenti said the Taiwanese market was worth $7.6 million to Canadian poultry producers in 2014, while the Japanese market was worth $1.46 million in 2014.

DeVisser said the command centre is  “basically assisting CFIA in any way that we can right now to manage this situation. As soon as AI (avian influenza) is confirmed CFIA takes over the actual incident.”

The command centre is helping CFIA “by providing information about the surrounding farms – the types of production and the ages of birds,” she said. “We are assisting the farmer in terms of what does he need to get through this.”

DeVisser said she hasn’t talked to the farmer on the index farm but a Turkey Farmers of Ontario official was with him “to go through the initial interview with CFIA. He (the farmer) was very well prepared. He had all the data that he needed.”

But as “time goes on it’s probably going to get a little more intense,” she added. After the turkeys are euthanized, the farmer will be required to complete barn cleaning and disinfection.

DeVisser said she doesn’t know definitely if Ontario has ever had a previous outbreak of avian influenza but she said there hasn’t been one since she has been a turkey farmer. She started turkey farming in 1991.  

Ontario’s poultry industry has held several disease outbreak simulations during the past five years and it is well prepared to deal with an avian influenza outbreak. DeVisser said the simulations “have prepared us all to know what our roles are within our different units.”

She added “CFIA has been really pleased with how well we’ve been able to work with them and that we have been prepared. Someone said at one point that we’re probably 48 hours ahead of where we might be” because the industry did advanced preparation for a disease outbreak.

As for the implications of the trade restrictions on Ontario farmers, DeVisser said, “I’m probably not the best person to comment on that. I don’t really have a lot of involvement in that end of things.”

In its April 6 press release, the command centre issued a “heightened biosecurity advisory” to all commercial poultry farmers and small flock producers in a 10-kilometre area around the Woodstock farm.

“Be very diligent in observing your flocks,” the command centre advised. “Monitor mortalities and track feed and water consumption. Take an active role in protecting your birds by employing strict heightened biosecurity measures on your property.” BF