If wild birds are demonstrated as a threat to the poultry industry in Canada, how might control measures be implemented?
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says that the best way to protect the poultry industry is to implement biosecurity measures. Currently, international and national scientific and health oriented agencies have recognized that culling of large populations of free-ranging wild birds is neither indicated nor effective. In fact, it could lead to further dispersal of the virus by scaring birds, causing them to move to locations where they are not normally present. Any culling of migratory waterfowl would have to be authorized under permit by the Migratory Birds Convention Act. Culling of other wild birds would have to be authorized through the relevant provincial/territorial agencies. At the moment, controlling outbreaks of avian influenza in wild and/or domestic birds needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis.
