Canada wild ducks unlikely to have H5N1 virus

Canadian health officials say they have found a strain of Avian flu in 33 wild migratory ducks, but it is unlikely to be the killer H5N1 strain which has spread from Southeast Asia to Europe.

According to Jim Clark of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, a recent survey of 4,800 wild birds found the H5 virus in 28 birds in the eastern province of Quebec and five in the central province of Manitoba.

Clark says that these findings do not indicate that it is a virus strain capable of causing significant illness, as all the evidence they have seen strongly indicates that these healthy birds were not infected with the same virus that is currently present in Asia.

The H5 virus has nine known strains and final tests on the bird samples will be ready in about a week.

However when he was queried as to why he was announcing the discovery of a nonlethal strain of bird flu, Clark said he could not categorically state as yet that the strain seen was not H5N1 even though it was highly unlikely.

Avian influenza (also known as bird flu) is a type of influenza virulent in birds. It was first identified in Italy in the early 1900s and is now known to exist worldwide.

Infection

The causative agent is the avian influenza (AI) virus. AI viruses all belong to the influenza virus A genus of the Orthomyxoviridae family and are negative-stranded, segmented RNA viruses.

Avian influenza spreads in the air and in manure. Wild fowl often act as resistant carriers, spreading it to more susceptible domestic stocks. It can also be transmitted by contaminated feed, water, equipment and clothing; however, there is no evidence that the virus can survive in well cooked meat.

Migratory birds have transmitted the strain which has now spread from Asia to Europe and some experts say it is likely to spread to the rest of the world.

Many experts fear that H5N1 will mutate just enough to allow it to pass easily from person to person, potentially causing a catastrophic pandemic as humans lack immunity to it.

To date at least 62 people have died from bird flu in an outbreak which started in Southeast Asia in late 2003.