Canadian farmers battle avian flu as bird death toll hits 1.7 million
CALGARY — When David Hyink checks on his barns each day, he does so with a sense of trepidation.
The central Alberta chicken farmer is on the lookout for lethargy, lack of appetite, or just a general appearance of ‘droopiness’ in his birds — all of which could be signs of the highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 avian influenza currently circulating in both wild and domestic flocks across North America.
If the disease were to turn up on his property, Hyink knows it would mean the loss of his entire flock. Avian influenza has a high mortality rate, and those birds at outbreak sites that don’t die from the disease are humanely euthanized to prevent the spread of the virus.
“While we haven’t had it on our farm, and I hope we don’t, it just appears it could be anybody,” Hyink said. “It could be us next, the farm next to us — you just don’t know.”
It’s that kind of uncertainty that is driving high levels of fear and stress on Canadian farms, where — according to Canadian Food Inspection Agency — poultry and egg producers have lost more than 1.7 million birds to avian influenza since late 2021.
Alberta is the hardest hit province, with 900,000 birds dead and 23 farms affected. Ontario is the second hardest hit, with 23 affected farms and 425,000 birds dead.
But outbreaks of the virus have turned up now in every province except Prince Edward Island.
Across the country, farmers are being encouraged to keep birds indoors, restrict visitors and ramp up biosecurity measures to help halt the spread. The virus can be spread between birds through direct contact, but it also spreads easily from wild bird droppings and can be carried into commercial flocks on the feet of workers or on equipment.
The new strain is highly transmissible and appears to be sustaining itself within wild bird populations. While there’s some hope that case counts might decline when the spring bird migration ends in June, for now, farmers are left wondering where and when the next outbreak will happen.
“You just don’t know, and you do the best you can,” Hyink said. “I guess you have to have a real attitude of acceptance, in terms of dealing with whatever happens.”