Ontario officials, industry work together to stave off H5N2 avian flu epidemic
Ontario’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in 2015 was quickly contained, with minimal disruption to the province’s poultry industry. The Midwest American states were not as fortunate, resulting in euthanasia of millions of birds.
The H5N2 avian influenza that arrived in Ontario in April 2015 posed a serious threat to Ontario’s poultry industry. Through the winter and spring of 2015, this version of bird flu had ravaged turkey and layer farms across the American Midwest. Believed to have been spread by migratory birds and waterfowl, the virus was termed highly pathogenic because of the mortality levels it caused in infected flocks.
Here in Ontario, the University of Guelph’s Animal Health Lab (AHL) had been in regular contact with its American and international colleagues who track foreign animal diseases around the world. The disease would arrive in Ontario — sooner or later — and the lab was determined to be ready. Just two weeks earlier, the AHL had met with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to review their joint emergency response plan, including a simulation exercise planned to test it out. Like the 2014 outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) in Ontario’s swine industry, the AHL would again play a key role in early containment and mitigation of the avian influenza by providing rapid testing of large numbers of samples, and protocols to ensure accurate, up-to-the-minute communication of results.
On the Easter weekend of spring 2015, the first red flag for avian influenza in Ontario was raised by a poultry veterinarian in southwestern Ontario. The vet had contacted the AHL about unusually high mortality in a turkey flock. Despite the holiday weekend, AHL officials took quick action. After discussing the clinical signs observed by the vet, they requested that samples of the birds be sent to Guelph for testing. They then alerted the chief veterinary officer at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) of a potential avian influenza outbreak.
Within 24 hours, AHL’s tests confirmed the diagnosis. H5N2: a highly pathogenic avian influenza. Their emergency response plan was immediately rolled out. That meant notifying the many government, industry and research partners who needed to know, and ramping up their testing capacity.
Measures were put in place for isolated handling of incoming poultry samples. Together with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and OMAFRA, media conferences were held and poultry producers were advised to use extra vigilance in their biosecurity measures.
The CFIA then took the lead on establishing a quarantine perimeter around the affected farm, humanely disposing of birds, and overseeing the disinfection of the barns and equipment, all according to international guidelines for dealing with disease outbreaks. Over the next two weeks, AHL confirmed positive test results on two more farms in the same geographic area, and additional quarantines were imposed by the CFIA.
In the following weeks, AHL continued to play an important role in resolution of the outbreak. It provided testing that would allow the quarantines to be lifted after a 21-day waiting period of no new cases, and Ontario’s avian influenza-free status to be regained after three months — both important international milestones for complete resumption of trade. In the end, the outbreak was successfully confined to three sites in Ontario, all close to each other. And although a total of 29 farms were affected by the quarantine, the fallout could have been far worse.
South of the border, the same avian influenza epidemic was the largest ever experienced in U.S. history. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that between December 2014 and June 2015, more than 48 million domestic poultry birds in 15 states were affected. It caused an estimated $3.3 billion in economic losses nationwide.
In Ontario, the outbreak had again tested the AHL’s capacity as a first responder to a foreign animal disease outbreak. It tested the lab’s surge capacity to rapidly scale up for handling large numbers of potentially infectious samples, while safely maintaining business continuity for its other clients. It tested AHL’s communications protocols with a wide range of audiences — and no room for error or misinterpretation of data or messages. AHL proved to be up to the task, and was a component of the successful containment and mitigation strategy.
What’s next on the horizon? The scientists at AHL aren’t sure, but they do know that preparation will again be key to a rapid and effective response. In the meantime, they’ll continue to keep a watchful eye on the movement of zoonotic pathogens around the world, so they can be ready for the next outbreak… not if, but when it occurs.
Saving the turkey export market Canada’s turkey production is worth almost $400 million annually (farm cash receipts). Ontario produces about 35 per cent of the total. Most of this country’s turkeys are shipped to the U.S., making it an extremely important export market. When H5N2 avian influenza appeared in Ontario in April 2015, it was critical that the outbreak be managed according to internationally recognized protocols to minimize trade disruption and restore Ontario’s “avian influenza free” status as quickly as possible. That’s exactly what was done, which meant that shipments of Ontario turkeys from outside of the quarantine zones were halted only briefly – for less than a week, in fact – before resuming exports to the U.S. – Robyn Meerveld
The AHL receives funding from the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance.
This article originally appeared in the 2016 AGri-Food Yearbook edition of Research magazine.
Written by Robyn Meerveld. Photo courtesy of Bruce Chessell/Woodstock Sentinel-Review/Postmedia Network.