Three new cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) were confirmed in commercial poultry flocks in Quebec, reported the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
All three of the cases were confirmed on February 8. One of them was in the Le Haut-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality, while the other two were in the Beauharnois-Salaberry Regional County Municipality.
CFIA did not disclose the size of either flock, nor did it state what type of birds were raised at these facilities.
These are the fourth and fifth cases of HPAI in commercial poultry for Beauharnois-Salaberry during the 2022-23 outbreak and the third for Le Haut-Saint-Laurent, although Le Haut-Saint-Laurent also had an earlier case that involved a backyard flock.
With these new cases, Quebec has had eight confirmed cases of HPAI in 2023, in addition to the 16 cases that were confirmed in 2022.
Quebec remains the province with the third most confirmed cases of HPAI during the 2022-23 outbreak, trailing only British Columbia and Alberta, respectively.
Avian influenza resurfaces in Nova Scotia
For the first time in nearly 11 months, CFIA reported a confirmed case of HPAI in Nova Scotia, although this case did not involve commercial poultry. The new case was confirmed in Lunenburg County on February 7.
While Nova Scotia was the first Canadian province to have a confirmed case of HPAI in commercial poultry in 2022 with a turkey flock affected on February 3 in Kings County and another on February 11, the province has not had any other commercial flocks affected since that time. Until now, the last time a backyard flock was affected in Nova Scotia was March 15, 2022, when the virus was confirmed on the border of Lunenburg and Halifax counties.
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.
