The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture reported that highly pathogenic avian influenza has been confirmed in the province.
With the detection, HPAI has now been confirmed in every Canadian province but Manitoba in 2022. However, the virus has not yet been confirmed in any Canadian territories.
Saskatchewan’s provincial government, in a press release, stated that samples collected from a snow goose found near Elrose were confirmed positive for HPAI by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The press release stated that this is the first time HPAI has been detected in the province since 2007.
While HPAI has appeared in all but one province, only three provinces have had confirmed cases in poultry: Nova Scotia, Ontario and Alberta.
The cases in British Columbia, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick were all in either backyard poultry, exhibition farms or in wild birds. Those cases should not have any impact on commercial poultry trade, according to World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) standards.
Three new cases in Alberta
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported three additional cases of HPAI in poultry. One of the new cases was confirmed on April 8 in Kneehill County, another was confirmed on April 9 in Paintearth County, while the third case was confirmed on April 10 in Wetaskiwin County.
The agency had earlier reported three cases of HPAI in Alberta poultry. Two of those cases were in Mountain View County and the other was in Ponoka County.
CFIA has not yet disclosed details on the species in any of those five flocks or how many birds were affected.
Other avian flu cases in Canadian poultry
Ontario has had five HPAI cases in commercial poultry. The most recently affected flock was in the Township of South Glengarry. The only other information about that case provided by CFIA at this point is that the presence of HPAI was confirmed there on April 10.
Of the earlier reported HPAI cases in Ontario, one was in a commercial duck and goose breeding operation, where 2,150 birds were affected. There were also three commercial turkey flocks affected, with those flocks collectively consisting of 17,483 turkeys.
The case previously confirmed in poultry in Nova Scotia involved a flock of 11,800 commercial turkeys. That case was the first commercial poultry HPAI case in Canada, confirmed on January 30.
To learn more about HPAI cases in North American commercial poultry flocks, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
Read our ongoing coverage of the global avian influenza outbreak.
