Manitoba officials downplay risk of bird flu
WINNIPEG:
Manitoba health and veterinary officials yesterday tried to quell concerns about the risk of bird flu in this province after the federal government announced five wild ducks tested positive in Manitoba for a worrisome type of avian flu.
The test results were part of a national survey of influenza viruses carried by wild birds in Canada.
Manitoba chief public health official, Dr. Joel Kettner, stressed there is no need for Manitobans to be concerned at this time. He said the H5N1 type of avian flu that has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003 has not been found in Manitoba.
For Manitobans as a whole, it is business as usual, risk as usual, said Kettner. That is unchanged from the results of wild bird tests.
Scientists are worried the H5N1 avian flu, which right now is mainly confined to poultry and poultry workers in Asia, will eventually mutate into a form that is easily transmitted from person to person.
If that happens, it could cause the next worldwide flu pandemic, in which millions will get sick. In Canada alone, scientists expect 50,000 people could die from it.
Knowing that, the Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Health Centre earlier this year began testing wild ducks in the six major migratory patterns across the country, aiming to identify the types of influenza virus they carry so those viruses can be tracked over time.
In Manitoba, 548 ducks were tested at Delta Marsh, Oak Lake, and Big Grass Marsh. Five of the birds tested positive for the H5 influenza virus, which is part of the makeup of the worrisome avian flu causing trouble in Asia.
Tests are underway now to determine what type of H5 virus it is, specifically to rule out the H5N1 strain from Asia.
Test results also found H5 in 28 of 782 ducks in Quebec. Test results from birds British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and the Atlantic have not been completed yet.
Ted Leighton, a professor at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, which houses the co-operative wildlife centre, said the finding of H5 in wild Canadian birds does not indicate any relation at all to the H5N1 virus in Asia.
There are many many H5 viruses, and the majority of influenza viruses found in wildlife are benign, said Leighton.
He said it is important to note the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus responsible for the avian flu deaths in Asia has never been found in North America.
The type of avian flu found in chickens in British Columbia last year that resulted in several flocks being destroyed, was H7N3, also a different type of avian influenza.
It was noted, even if the H5N1 form is discovered here, it is highly unlikely to be the same strain as the one in Asia because the birds here were not sick, said Dr. Paul Kitching, director of the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease in Winnipeg.
Dr. Wayne Lees, Manitoba’s chief veterinarian, said Manitoba is advising the poultry industry to maintain their normal levels of biosecurity.
Kettner said there are many many plans in place to deal with a positive H5N1 virus, but he said it’s far too early to warrant any of them being enacted.
Because none of the tests on the wild ducks is complete yet, there was some concern yesterday releasing the results was unnecessarily alarmist for Canadians.
Federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said releasing the information was part of the government reassuring the public.
I don’t believe that we should be hiding whatever we’re doing, he said. We should share with the public at the earliest possible, that’s one of our fundamental obligations as government.
But some government sources in Manitoba suggested Ottawa released the results yesterday to distract the public from the Gomery inquiry report into the sponsorship scandal, which will be released today.
A spokesperson for Reg Alcock, Manitoba’s senior MP, said that was absolutely not true. She said the government has committed to releasing information to the public as early as possible, and said if the Liberals really wanted to distract from Gomery, the results would have been released today.
-----------------------------
-----------------------------
The
'er is that the Manitoba officials who are downplaying the risk of bird flu are the same folk who downplayed the risk of getting 'West Nile' when it first showed up. Now the same Manitoba officials warn that we should not leave the house in summer unless we are saturated with deet, and dressed like a tent.
Anywho; heres hoping for all our sakes that the 'Officials' got this one right unless this new deadly just goes after the P-Ughs, then who am I to question Gods fine work. :twisted:
Tick Tock