H5N2 Virus Behind Avian Influenza Outbreak at British Columbia Turkey Farm

OTTAWA — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the virus responsible for an outbreak of avian influenza in B.C.'s Fraser Valley is an H5N2 virus.

The agency says testing at the National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases in Winnipeg determined the neuraminidase type or the N in the virus's name.

It has been known for nearly two weeks that the virus was an H5 virus but it took until Tuesday for the agency to announce testing had determined the N type.

The agency says preliminary tests suggest the virus was a low pathogenic type of avian flu.

Approximately 60,000 turkeys on the affected farm were euthanized last week and they are being composted in the barn at temperatures that should ensure any viruses are destroyed.

The H5N2 virus is not related to the H5N1 avian flu virus that has been decimating poultry flocks and killing people in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Eastern Europe for the last five years.

It is, however, the same type of virus that caused an outbreak in the Fraser Valley in late 2005. More than 62,000 poultry had to be destroyed in that outbreak.

Source: The Canadian Press