A British Columbia teenager has been infected with the H5 influenza virus, becoming the first human case in Canada.
British Columbia Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, speaking on a Global News live stream confirmed the case, in which she said the patient was admitted into BC Children’s Hospital on November 8. As of November 12, the patient was in critical condition.
The human case comes at a time when the H5 virus, also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been hitting a large number of commercial poultry operations in the province. Since October 21, the presence of HPAI has been confirmed in 25 commercial poultry flocks in British Columbia.
The patient had not had any contact with poultry, and also had no known contact with wild birds. “There is a very real possibility we may not ever determine the source, but at this point, we have a number of leads that we are following,” said Henry.
Contact tracing led to the testing of 36 other people, all of which tested negative for the virus.
Three more poultry flocks affected
Of those 25 affected flocks previously mentioned in this article, three have been confirmed since WATTPoultry.com’s latest report on the Canadian HPAI situatiation.
All three of those flocks were in Abbotsford, where the majority of British Columbia’s HPAI cases have been detected. One of the most recent flock infections was confirmed on November 11 and the other two were confirmed on the following day, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
Abbotsford has been the site of 19 flocks affected by HPAI, while the other six affected flocks were in Chilliwack. Both communities are part of British Columbia’s Fraser Valley.
View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation.
To learn more about HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in the United States, Mexico and Canada, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
