Canadian farmers take precautions as bird flu outbreaks hit U.S. dairy cattle

Beef cattle farmer Raquel Kolof of Gibsons, B.C., says she's extremely concerned about recent outbreaks of a dangerous form of bird flu - also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) - in dairy farms across at least eight U.S. states.

Though she says protec‐ tions are in place to prevent similar outbreaks from taking place north of the U.S. bor‐ der, and there have been no confirmed cases of bird flu in Canadian cattle to date, she says she's still worried "that it's coming up here."

"Cattle do move around … and 85 per cent of our beef market is handled in south Alberta, through massive, massive factories," said Kolof, the owner and founder of Hough Heritage Farms. "They all conglomerate, they spread to each other and then it spreads from there."

Despite that unease, ex‐ perts say there's no cause for alarm right now thanks to na‐ tional food safety standards and steps being taken by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to ensure that food producers adhere to necessary biosecurity mea‐ sures.

What is bird flu?

HPAI is a strain of influenza that causes "severe disease and high mortality in infected poultry," according to the U.S. Centres for Disease Con‐ trol and Prevention (CDC).

HPAI typically spreads be‐ tween birds and has a high mortality rate for avian species, according to Genevieve Toupin, the na‐ tional veterinary program manager with the CFIA, whose team is responsible for the agency's ruminant and swine programs.

She says the virus cur‐ rently infecting U.S. cattle is the same that's been circu‐ lated by migratory birds fly‐ ing along the Pacific-Central Flyway for approximately the past two years.

Thirty-two herds across eight U.S. states so far have been affected by HPAI infec‐ tions since government agen‐ cies made the announce‐ ment almost four weeks ago. It's still not clear how the virus is spreading to and be‐ tween dairy cattle.

While the virus's name im‐ plies it only affects birds, oth‐ er animals - including mam‐ mals - can catch H5N1.

"In fact, we've detected H5N1 in polar bears, sea li‐ ons, penguins, foxes, and the presumption there is they're getting it from eating dead birds," said University of Ot‐ tawa global health epidemiol‐ ogist Raywat Deonandan, speaking with Dr. Brian Gold‐ man, host of The Dose.

Symptoms among in‐ fected cattle include a sud‐ den decrease in milk produc‐ tion, thicker milk, decreases in appetite and dry manure or constipation, according to the CFIA.

Can humans catch bird flu?

Humans are susceptible to HPAI, though cases are rare and there has been no con‐ firmed human-to-human transmission.

Since 2003, nearly 900 people worldwide have been infected with H5N1, ac‐ cording to the World Health Organization. Canada has seen only one confirmed case, in 2013.

Infection occurs if the virus gets into a person's eyes, nose or mouth, or is in‐ haled, according to the CDC. Symptoms in humans resem‐ ble influenza, including cough, shortness of breath, fever and body aches.

In serious cases, people can experience severe respi‐ ratory illness, including diffi‐ culty breathing and pneu‐ monia, as well as neurologi‐ cal changes, and multi-organ failure.

An estimated 52 per cent of known human cases result in death.

"It's not the typical sea‐ sonal flu that we're all used to," said Deonandan.

"However, it's important to keep in mind that there are likely instances of people getting it and not even know‐ ing it, because their symp‐ toms were so poor, in which case the actual fatality rate will drop considerably."

Some estimates suggest the true fatality rate for hu‐ mans infected with bird flu is "probably around 14 per cent to 30 per cent," he said.

In comparison, during the height of the SARS outbreak in 2003, the disease had a case fatality rate of roughly 11 per cent.

Texas dairy worker in early April reportedly caught a case of bird flu from an in‐ fected mammal - likely a cow.

"The person in Texas … re‐ ported eye redness, or con‐ junctivitis, as their only symp‐ tom and is recovering," ac‐ cording to the CDC.

WATCH | Bird

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This was only the secondever recorded case of a hu‐ man infected with bird flu in the U.S. The first was a Col‐ orado inmate who caught the virus while working on a poultry farm as part of a prerelease employment pro‐ gram.

So far, nearly all human cases have been from direct contact with infected poultry, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, with no evidence of any sus‐ tained transmission between people.

Deonandan says he's es‐ pecially worried about bird flu mutating, infecting a pig, and subsequently infecting a human in a form that would let it spread.

"What we're concerned about is [bird flu] will share DNA with a flu that is adapted to live in humans and learn how to live in hu‐ mans, in which case it will

move from person to person, with presumably the same alacrity with which the sea‐ sonal flu moves from human to human," he said.

How are food producers monitoring their livestock?

For her part, Kolof says she and other livestock produc‐ ers already adhere to strin‐ gent safety standards to pre‐ vent the spread of infection and disease.

"One of the beauties of being a small-scale farmer is that I interact with my herd multiple times a day," she said.

"I know and can see a change instantly."

Toupin with the CFIA says working with stakeholders across the farming industry to coordinate the national re‐ sponse.

Cattle farms are being ad‐ vised not to introduce any new animals into a herd, and to quarantine new animals for 21 days just in case the animal is incubating disease.

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Farmers should also mini‐ mize contact between livestock and wild birds.

"We're monitoring the sit‐ uation closely," she said. "I think that it's not something that we should worry too much about [right now.]"

The Canadian Cattle Asso‐ ciation declined an interview request to discuss this story.

Canadians can also con‐ tinue consuming beef, milk and egg products, though ex‐ perts agree that food should be properly cooked. Pasteur‐ ization, a specialized heating process, also kills any harm‐ ful pathogens if they were to show up in milk or milk pro‐ ducts.

Deonandan says he's drawing attention to bird flu to contextualize the threat it poses to humans.

"COVID-19 has shown us that there is a deep distrust of the so-called experts, deep distrust of authority," he said. "By getting ahead of the nar‐ rative, by laying out the facts as we know them, maybe we can buy some more trust."