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WARNING: This story contains an image of a dead goose.
A Niverville resident is shocked to see dozens of dead geese in his backyard retention pond, and even one on his back deck.
All of them died from an outbreak of bird flu.
Mason Goulet noticed a handful of Canada geese on the ice, struggling to move, about three weeks ago.
“We thought maybe some of them were frozen in the ice,” Goulet said Thursday from his porch. “Turns out they were actually sick.”
On November 13, the City of Niverville issued a statement informing residents that the Manitoba Conservation Branch had detected bird flu in the local goose population. The virus has been found before in surrounding communities.
Laboratory tests have confirmed that it is the H5 avian influenza virus. H5 circulates in wild bird populations. The H5N1 subtype is responsible for some human cases of the disease.
Goulet was shocked to find the dead goose on his porch after being away for a couple of days. He estimated he was there between three and five days.
Conservation told him to leave it where it was, and that could take another week before it was removed.
Goulet said he and his neighbors are concerned about the goose population and the possibility of other animals getting sick. He has seen eagles pecking at the corpses.
“People’s dogs walking around could probably end up biting them or something, which obviously wouldn’t be good,” Goulet said.
“Our cat likes to go out on the deck, so we have this goose here that we were told not to touch for now, so we can’t let him out on the deck.”
Canadian Wildlife Service biologist Frank Baldwin said bird flu occurs naturally in waterfowl. The immunity of a population decreases over time, he said.
It’s unusual to see such high mortality rates in Manitoba, because the virus usually peaks after the geese have migrated for the season, Baldwin said.
Other parts of Canada, such as southern Ontario and Quebec and some parts of the northern United States, have experienced similar death rates, Baldwin said. Those outbreaks coincide with colder weather.
“When birds are highly concentrated, the virus moves quickly through the population,” Baldwin said.
“Birds also suffer some stress associated with cold weather, which leads to the mortality we see here.”
Baldwin and wildlife technician Owen Andrushuk visited retention ponds in Niverville on Thursday to plan next steps.
The Canadian Wildlife Service worked with the provincial government and the city of Niverville to clean up the carcasses.
A total of 165 carcasses were removed Friday, including the goose on the deck, Baldwin later told CBC.
The Public Health Agency of Canada considers the virus to be low risk to humans, but Baldwin said there are still some precautions to take.
Dead birds should not be handled and pets should be kept away from them. He advises hunters to always make sure they hunt birds in open spaces, wash their hands regularly and make sure meat is fully cooked.
“There is a risk to scavengers such as birds of prey, bald eagles and also some scavenging mammals,” Baldwin said.
“There have been confirmed cases in Manitoba this fall with coyotes, things like otters and foxes contracting the virus and dying.”
Across Canada there is an active and serious outbreak of bird flu in both wild and domestic poultry. Since December 2021, more than 16 million domestic birds have died or been euthanized.
Those numbers include 300 ostriches killed in British Columbia last month and 63,000 birds in southwestern Ontario.
The only confirmed human case of H5N1 from transmission within Canada last year was in British Columbia.
Hannah Wallace, a University of Manitoba researcher with expertise in emerging viruses and viral immunology, said most human cases are not found in the general public.
“The vast majority are people who work on a poultry or dairy farm,” Wallace said.
“These are people who are in very, very close and prolonged contact with infected animals.”
Containing avian influenza in wild bird populations is difficult, Wallace said.
Samples from the birds will be sent to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for DNA sequencing, Wallace said.
