Five new cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza have been confirmed in Quebec, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported.
According to information on the CFIA website, three of those cases were in the Beauharnois-Salaberry Regional County Municipality, with two of those cases being confirmed on February 2 and the other being confirmed on January 31.
The other two cases were in the Le Haut-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality. One case was confirmed on January 31 and one was confirmed on February 2.
The agency did not disclose information regarding the types of poultry operations these were.
Neither of these two municipalities had had any confirmed HPAI cases prior to this, but Le Haut-Saint-Laurent did have a backyard flock affected on May 3, 2022.
These are the first cases to be confirmed in commercial poultry in Quebec since November 5, although one backyard flock was affected on December 6.
With these new detections, Quebec has now had 21 cases of HPAI in commercial poultry during the 2022-23 outbreak. Quebec surpassed Manitoba, which had 17 cases of HPAI in commercial poultry in 2022, to become the province with the fourth most cases of HPAI. Ranking first through third are British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, respectively.
So far in 2023, only British Columbia and Quebec have had HPAI detections in commercial flocks. British Columbia has had six cases in commercial flocks and two cases in backyard flocks so far this year.
New Brunswick also had HPAI confirmed in a backyard flock, with that case being confirmed on January 11. That province has not had any commercial flocks affected during the 2022-23 outbreak, and only one other case in backyard poultry, which was confirmed on April 25, 2022.
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.
