What are we doing about AI viruses in wild birds?
A disease surveillance program for live and dead wild birds is currently underway for the detection of AI viruses in the wild. This surveillance provides an early warning for the possible entry of HPAI H5N1 into Canada from Europe and Asia. The first Canadian wild bird survey, conducted in 2005, identified many different AI viruses including four H5 subtypes. In all cases, these viruses were characterized as low pathogenic North American strains. In Saskatchewan, the Ministry of Environment is conducting a dead bird survey in collaboration with the National Inter-Agency Wild Bird Influenza Survey to detect AIV in the wild.
