Migratory birds return home with bird flu

2023-04-16 22:14:33

The birds flying overhead these days don’t bode well for everyone. With them, avian flu is coming back to haunt poultry and egg producers in Quebec. Six outbreaks have already been recorded since the start of the return of warm weather, which has resulted in the death of thousands of birds.

The 22,000 laying hens on Paulin Bouchard’s farm cackle quietly in their Beauceron henhouse. Their owner is not so serene. “It’s the worst time right now, with the most birds flying overhead. We are all concerned,” he says.

Avian flu is back this year among Quebec breeders because of these wild birds. Five cases have been identified since the beginning of spring among large producers in Montérégie. A sixth was listed with a “non-commercial producer” in the Sherbrooke region, that is to say an individual who raises hens for his own consumption.

It can take months before production resumes. This is major for the producer.

The consequences are always disastrous. Big or not, the whole flock of poultry must be euthanized to avoid further contamination. Nearly 150,000 birds have had to be slaughtered since the end of March in Quebec. “It can take months before production resumes. It’s important for the producer,” explains Paulin Bouchard.

About 532,000 farmed birds were killed across Quebec last year due to avian flu. This number climbs to 7 million for all of Canada. Worldwide, estimates are around 200 million dead birds.

In Canada, the government reimburses the value of the birds thus destroyed. The burden remains heavy for breeders, who must disinfect all their equipment and leave with new hens. The production chain can be derailed if disease strikes in a breeding bird farm. Two turkey breeding sites and one chicken breeding site were affected last year.

For the consumer, the supply management in force in the country should keep the price of chicken and eggs at a reasonable price. “It would have to be major” for the avian flu to be felt on the shelves, advances Paulin Bouchard.

Reinforced measures

In addition to caring for his hens, Mr. Bouchard is busy chairing the Quebec Poultry Disease Control Team (EQCMA). He multiplies calls for vigilance around him to prevent losses from being as high as those of last year. “Unfortunately, we know that we will have some. Fortunately, we learned a lot in the last year,” he said.

Since the disease is transmitted from one animal to another through droppings, ordinary walks in a field where the geese land present serious risks of contamination.

“You have to be careful when entering a chicken coop, no matter how small. The ideal is to have shoes that you always keep inside the building. Birds should not be given access to the outside, advises the specialist. The level of vigilance must be at its maximum, a bit like in the intense moment of COVID-19, when we did everything to avoid making mistakes. »

In case of infections, the symptoms are obvious. The hens stop eating, laying eggs, their heads swell, and death usually follows quickly.

It’s not just birds that can contract and transmit the disease. Bird flu has been observed in pigs, foxes, seals and even in a domestic dog. An Ontario dog has indeed died “after chewing a wild goose” contaminated, according to a communication from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) dated April 4.

However, the risk of a human contracting this disease remains very low. Consumers of poultry and eggs have nothing to fear, according to the government.

The Quebec government also granted $800,000 at the beginning of the month to the EQCMA in order, among other things, “to update the biosecurity protocols”. Transporters and “catchers” of poultry will thus have to comply with stricter standards.

The summer of all dangers

Despite these signs of an early arrival of the virus, an omen of widespread contamination, encouraging news is coming from south of the border.

“Very few infections” have been identified for the moment in the United States, notes the D^re Manon Racicot, Senior Veterinary Epidemiologist at the CFIA. However, our wild birds arrive from the South and settle next to American farms before arriving at our country.

“It raises questions. Are the birds less contaminated? Did these wild birds develop antibodies? We don’t know yet, ”questions the veterinarian.

Farms were also affected by avian flu this winter, which suggests that this virus – still non-existent in Quebec in 2021 – is on the way to becoming endemic here.