With another case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) confirmed in a commercial poultry flock in Abbotsford, British Columbia, on December 1, British Columbia is now Canada’s province that has had the most confirmed cases to date in 2022.
British Columbia, according to information from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has now had 39 commercial flocks affected by HPAI. Alberta, previously the province with the most confirmed cases, has had 38 cases this year.
Of the province’s 39 HPAI cases, 31 of them were confirmed in November, and all of those were detected in either Abbotsford or Chilliwack.
With 22 confirmed detections of HPAI in 2022, Abbotsford has been the municipality where most of the province’s cases have been. Chilliwack has had 12 cases this year. Elsewhere in British Columbia, three cases have been confirmed in the Langley Township, while the Regional District of North Okanagan and the District of Kent have each had one confirmed case.
CFIA has not released specific details concerning all of these confirmed cases in British Columbia, but the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) has disclosed that turkeys, broilers and laying hens have all been affected in the province.
Other provinces to have commercial poultry flocks lost to HPAI in 2022, and the number of confirmed cases are:
- Ontario – 27
- Manitoba – 17
- Quebec – 16
- Saskatchewan – 16
- Nova Scotia – 2
HPAI has also been confirmed in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, although those provinces have only had confirmed cases in backyard flocks or wild birds.
In late November, the governments of Canada and Ontario unveiled plans to make funding available for qualifying poultry producers seeking to increase their biosecurity efforts to battle HPAI.
To learn more about HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in the United States and Canada, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
Read our ongoing coverage of the global avian influenza outbreak.
