Canada reports not H5N1

P.E.I. bird flu case not H5N1 strain, report says

Updated Tue. Jun. 20 2006 2:15 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A domestic goose that died in Prince Edward Island last week was not carrying the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, according to an unconfirmed report.

"The news is good. The dead bird was not carrying the highly pathogenic strain of H5N1," a Canadian source told Reuters.

However, the source declined to say exactly what the dead bird had been suffering from.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is expected to release results of its tests at mid-afternoon on Tuesday, spokesman Marc Richard said.

The CFIA's director of animal health indicated last week there were already clues suggesting this avian flu virus isn't the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus that has decimated poultry flocks.

The dead goose -- one of four that died -- was part of a small mixed backyard flock of free-range geese, chickens and ducks.

"If this is a highly pathogenic virus -- or it was -- then it should have been causing some difficulty for the chickens,'' Dr. Jim Clark told The Canadian Press last week.

"So we're relatively confident that the virus has low pathogenicity. But we won't be able to say that definitely until the lab in Winnipeg finishes analyzing the samples."

The owner of the birds, who had purchased the geese from a local co-operative for personal consumption, told authorities he noticed four of his geese were "walking funny" on Sunday.

"Monday morning, he came out (and) the four birds that were walking funny were dead,'' Clark said.

The man disposed of three but took one for testing to the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown, where the laboratory confirmed the presence of an H5 virus.

A wild bird surveillance program conducted in Canada last fall discovered a number of birds carrying low pathogenic H5 viruses.

Analysis showed none of the viruses were of Asian H5N1 lineage and posed little or no threat to human health.