It's here!!! ...maybe...

[Guest Guest]

The H5 virus has arrived in Canada. They don't know if it's H5N1 yet, but it is still a scarey thought! DH thinks I'm overreacting.

~Jo

 

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/st...?hub=TopStories

 

Wild birds with H5 flu virus found in Canada

CTV.ca News Staff

 

Wild waterfowl carrying the H5 strain of avian flu virus have been found in Quebec and Manitoba -- but that's no reason to panic, officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Monday.

 

"Preliminary testing has identified H5 influenza in 28 samples from Quebec, and five from Manitoba," Jim Clark of the CFIA told a news conference.

 

However, he added: "The chance of it being H5N1 are likely fairly remote."

 

That strain is behind the avian flu problem growing in Asia, where more than 60 people have died of H5N1 infection picked up from people.

 

There are believed to be nine different H5 subtypes.

 

Clark noted that the virus does not appear to be killing the birds.

 

"The evidence we have observed strongly indicates that these healthy birds were not infected with the same virus that is currently present in Asia," he said.

 

Health officials in Winnipeg conducting tests on the H5-infected birds won't know whether they have H5N1 until mid-week.

 

There were three different news conferences on the issue Monday.

 

When asked why, Clark said: "To make sure there's no misinformation and no panic in the Canadian public."

 

But another issue was reassuring trade partners, especially the United States, so they won't stop buying Canadian poultry.

 

"Some countries are very much risk-averse and will take advantage of the situation to sever ties," Clark said.

 

Viruses endemic

 

The birds, which are migratory, are believed to be among thousands that have been tested in Canada.

 

Even if the Canadian birds are carrying the H5N1 virus, it does not mean they are necessarily related to the viruses behind the poultry outbreaks in southeast Asia.

 

"It is important to clarify that the avian influenza virus is not new to wild birds," Clark said. "Experts worldwide know that this virus, in one form or another, has circulated among wild birds around the world for hundreds, or perhaps even for thousands of years."

 

Indeed, it's not the first time that avian viruses have been found in North America. For more than a decade, parts of Mexico suffered through an outbreak of the H5N2 avian flu in poultry operations.

 

And last year in Canada, testing revealed that the avian flu found on a goose and duck farm near Abbotsford, B.C. was not the H5 variety. Instead, the CFIA said that the 37,000 geese on the Fraser Valley Duck and Goose Ltd. farm were exposed to the H6 strain of avian influenza virus.

 

The outbreak caused no major human health problems, but forced the culling of some 16 million poultry.

 

So far, the outbreaks in Asia have infected 121 people in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia.

 

With the strain crawling through Europe as migrating fowl fly westward, there are mounting fears that the virus could mutate into one that can easily spread among humans and thus prompt a global pandemic.

 

Earlier in the month, Australia lifted a ban on live bird imports from Canada, after officials in Ottawa provided compelling evidence proving the country was free of H5N1.

 

Australian officials announced the ban after three imported racing pigeons from Canada tested positive for bird flu antibodies. The pigeons, which were later destroyed, tested positive for bird flu antibodies while being held in quarantine in the southern city of Melbourne.

 

That means the three birds weren't infected with avian flu, but rather that they had fought off a previous infection.

 

Antibodies help strengthen the immune system and, unlike the viruses they fight, aren't infectious.

 

With a report from CTV's Roger Smith

 

 

[Guest Guest]

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

I read it's been here for two years now - spotted in the state of Conn. Sorry I don't remember the source, but I read it this morning someplace. Memory, oh memory, what art thou, oh memory?

[Guest Guest]

Maybe they'll make a cure for it out of chocolate? Now THAT medicine would not be hard to swallow!

 

I'm keeping my eyes out for when they find out what kinf of H5 it is.

 

~Jo

[johnnyhoz]

The one thing I have noticed ( and am feverishly hoping is a fact ) is that everyone in Asia that has caught bird flu, actually lived with the animals and didn't have great sanitary conditions. I am hoping that this fact will make it a harder transmission in N. America where we have stricter sanitary rules and practices.

[Freetobeme]

No, not everyone lived with the chickens. Some people were infected by visiting the zoo. Another man was infected from butchering and eating a sick chicken from his neighbor's flock. Proximity and sanitation are a problem, but it seems to be easier and easier for the virus to make the bird to human jump.

[Guest Guest]

I remember watching a documentary a few yrs back about how amimal viruses make the cross over to human...and it stated that most do so in china or other asian countries, due to the sanitation,and the living in very close proximity to the animals they eat. for instance the swine flu started as a disease of poultry, they keep their ducks and hogs in pens next to each other in filthy pens,where the rain run off flows directly from pen to pen, the people live in close proximity with the run off as well. The hogs become carriers of the avian disease, and they facilitate the mutation in their bodies. Hogs are more similar to humans, and the humans catch the mutated viruses from them. Im sure this is the completly watered down low tech version, but it was intersting none the less. The asian countries that I have visited (2) appear very clean, there is little to no trash for example, but if you watch closely, you will notice that they will wipe everything down with diry rags, or mops...to them if it looks clean then it is clean... little to no use of sanitizers or disinfectants...those were my observations... AM

[Freetobeme]

Very true. These conditions also exist in parts of Africa and South America. In college I studied parasitology and the professors who taught the course were a doc and a vet who did volunteer work in S. Am. The slides they had would make your skin crawl.

[HapyGirl]

The 1918 flu started in Haskell KS. In the US! It came probably from migratory birds infecting the local ones and then spreading to the rest of the world. It can make the jump anywhere. Also let's not forget about swine flu!

[Guest Guest]

Did it "start" there or was it *discovered* there? (I mean studied & named)

 

Does the book come to that as a conclusion, Becca Anne?

 

I GOTTA get that book.

 

 

 

[Freetobeme]

Try the info from this PBS site. There is a good written account of the flu's spread.

www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/index.html

[HapyGirl]

That is believed to be "ground zero" for where the pandemic originated. At first they thought it was a bacteria, but discovered much later it was the influenza virus.