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As the number of birds slaughtered in an outbreak of bird flu at turkey farms near Strathroy, Ont., approaches 100,000, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says it will not allow its staff to do media interviews for fear of being subjected to harassment or even death threats.
About 95,000 birds have been affected at five different turkey farms in the area where the outbreak began on Nov. 26, the CFIA says. A control zone has been created to limit new infections.
The number of birds affected at each of the five affected sites ranges between 15,200 and 33,000. The CFIA says it cannot provide information on specific farms for privacy reasons.
One expert calls it “problematic” and says the public is missing vital information during an outbreak.
Spokespersons threatened, says CFIA
The CFIA also does not provide a spokesperson for media interviews. The agency said that since it euthanized just over 300 ostriches after an outbreak of bird flu at a farm in British Columbia last month, staff have been harassed and sent death threats.
“In the current climate, any CFIA employee who is publicly identified in connection with our response to avian influenza (regardless of whether they are in BC or Ontario) immediately becomes the target of harassment, including death threats, from individuals who oppose CFIA’s eradication policy in British Columbia at Universal Ostrich Farm,” the agency said in a statement to CBC News.
Daniel Stockemer, a professor at the University of Ottawa, says it’s unfortunate that threats lead to media access being limited during an outbreak.
“It’s very problematic,” said Stockemer, who investigates extremist groups. “What people want from the government is extreme transparency. And now they are threatened and do not provide this transparency? This can fuel more people to distrust the government. That is not the way to fight disinformation.”
The Feather Board Command Center (FBCC), which coordinates the Ontario poultry industry’s response to avian disease outbreaks, has not responded to an interview request with CBC News.
Bird flu is a serious threat to humans, says academic
Shayan Sharif, a professor of immunology at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College, has studied bird flu for more than 20 years. It says the virus poses a potential threat to humans because it is highly infectious, can mutate quickly and has a demonstrated ability to cross species.
A domestic cat died in the United States after eating raw pet food and contracting H5N1 bird flu. Epidemiologist Dr. Christopher Labos tells CBC News that the risk of any pet getting bird flu remains low, but the worry is that the easier it is for it to infect different types of animals, “the easier it will ultimately be for this virus to infect humans.”
“He’s been able to hitchhike with migratory birds,” Sharif said. “And at the same time, it has been able to infect many different types of species… more than 300 different species of birds and more than 40 species of mammals.”
Last year, a 13-year-old girl in British Columbia contracted bird flu, the first human case of the virus recorded in Canada. She was in critical condition but was released after spending weeks in the hospital. Infected people can have symptoms similar to those of seasonal influenza, although it can also be life-threatening in severe cases.
“These viruses undergo many mutations,” Sharif said. “In a poultry barn, when the virus comes in, it has a certain type of genetic structure. When you end up with that poultry barn, it might actually have a very different genetic structure.”
Sharif says right now the risk of human-to-human transmission is low, but that could change.
“So we’re going to be faced with a virus that I would say…certainly has pandemic potential,” he said. “That’s really what we should avoid.”
Sharif says culling birds creates considerable difficulties for the poultry industry, but is “one of the main tools we have” to control outbreaks.
He also highlighted advances in the development of vaccines, both for people and birds. Earlier this year, the Public Health Agency of Canada purchased 500,000 doses of a human vaccine to protect those most at risk against bird flu.
