National Post

No sign of avian flu in milk samples

OTTAWA • No evidence of avian flu has been found in commercial milk samples tested by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, it said Tuesday.

In a statement, the agency said its laboratori­es tested 142 retail milk samples from across Canada. “To date, all samples have tested negative for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) fragments, with no evidence of disease in dairy cattle detected in milk.”

The findings support reports that the virus has not been detected in Canadian dairy cows, it said.

Testing retail milk is one of the steps Canadian officials began taking earlier this month to expand surveillan­ce amid a growing avian flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cattle. There have been no cases of infected cattle reported in Canada.

Last month, remnants of highly pathogenic avian influenza were detected in about 20 per cent of retail milk samples in the U.S. The influenza fragments posed no danger to humans because pasteuriza­tion had inactivate­d the virus, but the findings suggested a more widespread avian flu outbreak among dairy cattle than was previously believed.

Canadian officials also began requiring lactating cattle imported from the U.S. to test negative for avian influenza. It also expanded testing of cattle to include voluntary testing of cows with no symptoms of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

The spread of the avian virus to domestic cows in the U.S., following its spread to numerous wild mammals, has heightened fears that it could change enough to make the jump to humans, setting the stage for a potentiall­y deadly pandemic.

This week, the Public Health Agency of Canada said it is adopting a “proactive response for preparedne­ss beyond monitoring, including lab capacity, medical countermea­sures and guidance to the public, farm workers and health-care workers.”

As part of its pandemic influenza preparedne­ss plan, the federal government has agreements in place with several vaccine manufactur­ers “to ensure timely access to pandemic influenza vaccine for the entire Canadian population.” That, officials have said, could help avoid the kind of scramble for vaccines experience­d during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement that it has met “proactivel­y” with GSK, the pharmaceut­ical company that is contracted by the government for domestic vaccine manufactur­ing, to talk about obtaining an H5N1 avian influenza candidate vaccine virus and conducting clinical trials in preparatio­n for a possible pandemic.

The Public Health Agency said it is working with scientists and academics to fill “knowledge gaps” about virus transmissi­on in livestock and potential infection in humans who are in contact with livestock.