Bird flu kills some Canadian geese in a park in Abbotsford, according to the founder of a local wildlife shelter.
Elizabeth Melnik of the Elizabeth Wildlife Center said she received calls almost every day to find dead geese or show symptoms in Mill Lake Park.
Several of the birds brought to the center tested positive for the infection, she said.
Melnik said the number of cases she has seen exceeds those of the previous major bird flu epidemic in 2004.
“I don’t remember it ever being like that in Lake Mill,” she said. “It’s just spreading like wildfire.”
The first confirmation of this year’s H5N1 in British Columbia was in mid-April at a commercial poultry producer in northern Okanagan.
Outbreaks have since been reported across British Columbia, including in mid-May at a commercial poultry farm in Abbotsford.
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The infected premises have been quarantined by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Melnik said she first realized the virus was spreading locally to wild birds when a sick male duck and duck were brought to the center from the Great Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove on May 16th.
She said the birds showed obvious symptoms of bird flu – which affects the central nervous system – including shaking their heads.
The results of laboratory tests confirmed that the birds were infected with the virus.
Melnik then began receiving public calls for dead Canadian geese in Lake Mill, and some of the sick were brought to the center.
She said the alleged case of bird flu required her to isolate the birds from other animals in the center and to provide personal protective equipment.
A confirmed case leads to the need to euthanize the bird.
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Melnik said tackling these cases has put extra strain on the wildlife center at its busiest time of year and before expansion and repairs are completed.
“It just added so much to our workload for the already busy baby season of working with an Amco trailer,” she said.
Melnik said, except for the first two birds, she had only seen flu affecting Canadian geese in Lake Mill.
The Elizabeth Wildlife Center is one of the main wildlife rehabilitation centers in British Columbia, focused on caring for small mammals and birds.
Its services include providing food, medicine and veterinary services to small creatures such as squirrels, rabbits, possums, hummingbirds and crows until they can be released back into the wild.
Anyone who sees a dead wild bird is asked to call the Wild Bird Morality Investigation Program at 1-866-431-2473 to report.
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