The bird flu is at a dangerous time in the United States: nearly 167 million birds were touch By the H5N1 strain since 2022 and 70 people have been infected. Now birds steal our way for the spring migration season.
A snow goose near Montreal, a large horns in southwest Ontario, a Canadian goose in Langley, British Columbia-there are only some of the wild birds that have recently been tested positive for H5N1 in Canada. But scientists are preparing for more and increasing their efforts to monitor and brake the virus this season.
This winter has known more epidemics of H5N1 than usual, said Dr. Manon Racicot, a veterinary epidemiologist from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Saint-Hyacinthe, Qué.
“Now that birds are coming north for migration, we don’t really know what is happening to us. Birds will still be infected? Will they lose the virus in the environment in Canada?”
Adding to the concern of scientists: another bird influenza strain, H7N9, has been reported in a Mississippi, US -first poultry farm since 2017. Although it is not the dominant mortality rate that H5N1, currently killing 40% of humans since 2013. said State authorities.
To a mutation
H5N1 also crossed species and adapted to mammalus hosts. Animals like seals, cats and dogs died after mixing wild birds or raw pet food for pets.
In the United States, dairy cows fell ill, with 989 herds affected in 17 states, According to the centers for disease control and prevention.
The bird flu does not seem to be easily transmitted between people, for the moment. But the strain of H5N1 circulating in cows in the United States is only a change far from being more transmitted between humans, suggests a study Recently published in the journal evaluated by peers science.
And when he infects humans, the virus can be fatal. In January, a senior in Louisiana became the first human death linked to the H5N1 in the United States
The only known case in H5N1 Canada was confirmed two months earlier, in November: a teenager in British Columbia who was hospitalized for two months. We still don’t know how it was infected.
In both cases, genetic analysis suggested the The virus had transferred to become More effective to attach to the higher respiratory tract cells.
All of this has scientists and doctors on alert.
“Frankly, only one case of avian influenza is very worrying because we do not want this virus to adapt to humans,” said Dr. Danuta Skowronski, epidemiologist in the British Columbia-British Columbia (BCCDC).
“We are all responsible for closing this as quickly as possible to contain it. It is a global effort. We communicate on a global scale with the United States, with the United Kingdom, wherever we can make sure that we get the best possible knowledge.”
Withdraw from whom, rush to rehire the employees
With how much the disease is currently changing in the United States, it is essential that the American authorities continue to communicate with other countries and the World Health Organization (WHO), said Ian Brown, a leading avian expert in the Pirbright Institute in the United Kingdom
But the Trump administration withdraws the United States from WHO. This also reduces funding and jobs in key agencies such as the National Institutes of Health.
“We know that it is a sensitive situation. We know some of our colleagues, they may be at risk of not having a job,” said Brown.
He is early, he says, but he fears that there is a reduction in the sharing of information between American scientists and international counterparts.
“The first signs are that the interaction that we have been used to, for many years, can now be compromised.”
There have already been missteps.
The Department of Agriculture has scrambled to hire Employees working on the response of the bird flu, after having drawn them by mistake during his rapid purge of the federal workforce, on the recommendations of the Ministry of Elon Musk’s government. They had trouble recovering them, Politico reported.
The WHO has already seen an impact on the cuts for monitoring the bird flu, ITSidentifier The director general of Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday.
Do the United States speak with Canada on the bird flu?
Fortunately, however, the United States referred Canada calls to the human-in-law cases, especially among those working with infected poultry or dairy cattle, explains Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada Public Health Head.
“I think that public health at all levels is trying to be really very vigilant about cases in these different populations and we share information on a continuous basis,” said Tam.
Canada is based on the United States to effectively curb the virus. On the animal health side, for example, American and Canadian officials work together to monitor the wills of will of birds and closely monitor wild and domestic birds, sharing concerns, as well as approximate locations of infected birds.
Also at the provincial level, British Columbia teams keep close contact with counterparts in states like Washington, Oregon and Alaska, said Dr. Bonnie Henry, head of provincial health in British Columbia.
“I think one of the things that helps us is the relationships we have, personal relationships.”
Canada also has an eye on our dairy cows: the CFIA Test samples raw milk arriving in the processing factories. Until now, all samples have returned negative, on February 28.
Learn from Covid-19
But Tam and Henry underline: it is important to strengthen Canada surveillance and be prepared, in particular in the event that the virus changes and becomes more transmissible in humans, which could trigger a pandemic.
These efforts include “increased surveillance and vigilance, laboratory tests, ensuring that any human case is surveyed,” said Tam.
BCCDC scientists are part of many in Canada who are already part of this preparatory work.
“Thanks to the pandemic, we have learned a lot about the tools that public health can use to make their decisions,” said Linda Hoang, medical director of her public health laboratory.
The BCCDC was monitoring the mutations that could make H5N1 more suited to humans, developing antibody tests to monitor human exposure and seeking the transmission of the flu influenza.
These are all information that could be essential for decision -makers if the virus becomes more transmissible.
Henry says that she is confident – even if there are temporary episodes of silence of American counterparts – that Canadian surveillance is strong enough to keep an eye on the bird flu.
