American black duck, Photo: Ducks Unlimited Canada – Click to enlarge

Trap for safely confining ducks. Photo: Norm North, Canadian Wildlife Service – Click to enlarge

Gently swabbing a bird's trachea (Iceland). Photo: Dr. Kendrew Calhoun, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust – Click to enlarge.

Fast Facts

Asian H5N1, often called bird flu, is a subtype of avian influenza virus.

The "H" stands for hemagglutinin, a kind of protein that binds the virus to cells as they become infected.

The "N" stands for neuraminidase, which is found on the surface of the virus and helps to spread the infection.

Some subtypes – including Asian H5N1 – are highly pathogenic, meaning that they are likely to cause severe illness.

Asian H5N1 has never been found in North America.

Related Sites

How to Safely Handle Wild Birds

Pandemic Influenza

Canada's Inter-Agency Wild Bird Influenza Survey

Reporting Dead Wild Birds

Facts for Domestic Bird Importers and Producers

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Nature.com Web Focus on Avian Flu around the World

The first human death from Asian H5N1 occurred nearly a decade ago and there have been less than 250 human deaths world-wide from the illness. It is possible that future genetic changes to bird flu could allow the virus to move more easily from person to person, no longer needing an avian source. But this alteration has not happened anywhere in the world to date.

Meanwhile, the virus has spread among birds – from Asia to Europe, Africa and some Middle Eastern countries. It has become established in the poultry flocks of Asia and areas of northern Africa. The global trade in domestic birds is expected to be the chief risk for transmission of bird flu to other parts of the world. Both legal and illegal trade channels are difficult to secure because of their volume. Illegal trade, naturally, may pose the most serious risk.

If Asian H5N1 infiltrated North American bird populations, it could have implications for the health of wild bird populations. The stakes are higher for the domestic poultry industry because the arrival of contagious disease in intense farming regions, such as British Columbia's Lower Fraser Valley, is generally met with lethal culls to protect neighbouring flocks – and the health of human workers.

It is imperative to remain vigilant and understand avian influenza viruses and their behaviour. If the virus does appear in North America, however it arrives, it must be detected quickly and any outbreak of disease among birds must be contained. Central to making this happen is building on the current knowledge and capacity to manage this relatively new viral strain.

Nation-wide survey results will build a year-over-year understanding of the incidence rates of avian influenza viruses and create a current inventory of the viruses that exist in the birds, while keeping watch for the emergence of new disease.

That is the kind of vigilance that the wary American black duck would understand.

All viruses detected were North American strains with LOW or NO potential to cause disease in domestic chickens. Asian H5N1 was NOT detected.

Chart adapted from Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre

* No birds were sampled in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Saskatchewan or Yukon.