An eight month streak with no new cases of highly-pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in commercial poultry flocks across all of Canada has been broken, as the virus has been confirmed on three poultry farms in B.C.’s Fraser Valley this week.
The new cases, confirmed on Oct. 21, are in the Abbotsford and Chilliwack areas. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has not disclosed the type of poultry that are affected.
The three cases this week are the first on-farm detections nationwide since a case in February in Alberta. The last confirmed case in B.C. was detected in December 2023.
The Canadian poultry industry had also reached a milestone on October 9 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted the last of its prohibitions on imports from affected areas, going back to the onset of the HPAI outbreak that swept North America in 2022 and 2023.
Poultry producer groups say the new cases are a reminder the virus is still actively circulating, with increased risk to domestic poultry during the fall migratory period as wild birds spread the virus.
A report on wild bird populations published earlier this month by Birds Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada showed waterfowl populations across Canada have increased 46 per cent since 1970. Within that category, the number of geese and swans, which are vectors of highly-pathogenic avian influenza, has grown by 573 per cent.