The bodies of thousands of northern Ganedis have covered the shores of Quebec’s Magdalen Islands in the past two weeks, victims of highly pathogenic avian influenza.
“No one had to tell me this was happening. It’s obvious we’re talking about thousands of dead birds, “said Magdalen Mayor Jonathan Lapierre.
“We are not talking about waste or a simple situation. We are talking about an extraordinary event beyond our control. Especially since we don’t have an incinerator – we don’t have a depot. We are on an island! ”
The Quebec Ministry of Wildlife says it has confirmed several hundred cases of highly pathogenic H5N1 in the Magdalen Islands, an archipelago of islands in St. Lawrence Bay since May 24.
Lapierre said the operation to dispose of all the dead animals had begun. The corpses, he added, must be exported by boat.
“All of this is not easy given our location – the boat also carries people and rare goods,” Lapierre said. “We had to manage all these elements together.”
The highly contagious virus is spreading across the country to wild and domestic birds such as turkeys, chickens and ducks.
2 million birds killed on farms
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency estimates that nearly two million birds in commercial agricultural operations have been killed by the virus.
The agency said bird flu is spreading worldwide and outbreaks have been confirmed in every province except Prince Edward Island, where poultry and commercial poultry have not been affected, but a handful of wild birds and even some fox sets have tested positive. .
“This year has been an unprecedented year for avian influenza worldwide,” the agency said in a statement.
“All birds in an infected barn will die within days if they are not euthanized. It is also difficult to predict how long the (highly pathogenic H5N1) virus that is currently circulating will remain in North America. Research in Europe at the moment shows that this particular strain is emerging quite resilient and able to survive in wild bird populations. “
Magdalen Island Mayor Jonathan Lapierre says “we are talking about thousands of dead birds.” (William Bastille-Denny / Radio Canada)
Stefan Leir, a professor of veterinary medicine at the Université de Montréal, says the first highly pathogenic cases of bird flu may have arrived in North America in late winter, including birds migrating from Europe.
“It happened naturally,” Leir said. “When a new virus arrives in a new population, the animals have no immunity. There is no doubt that the rate of infection will be high in the beginning.”
Serge Hubert, a resident of the Magdalen Islands, said in a recent interview that he had never seen so many dead scales floating in the water before this season.
“We’ve seen them swimming for the last two or three weeks – dead. We fish 25 kilometers from the shores and see corpses all the way.”
The disease in the wild cannot be stopped, says the expert
The Canadian Wildlife Health Association, which has partnered with the federal government to monitor wild bird populations, said that while they could not test every dead bird, they could link most cases on the island to H5N1.
Marion Jalenquez, the group’s veterinarian, said the H5N1 strain was not considered high-risk for humans, but was spreading rapidly among birds.
“We are testing many cases at the moment, but we cannot get 300 dead birds at once,” Jalenquez said in a recent interview, adding that cases in eastern Quebec and the Mauritius and Monterey regions have also been reported.
“If we test 10 out of several hundred from the same event, it’s certainly related.”
She said that while the destruction of commercial poultry helps prevent the spread of the virus, it is almost impossible to keep the virus in the wild.
“We can’t do much,” Halenkes said. “We’re talking about huge areas with large bird populations. There are a lot of wildlife diseases that we can’t control.”
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