MUN scientists testing wild animals to determine spread of avian flu
Alex Kennedy | CBC News | Posted: January 7, 2025 9:30 AM | Last Updated: January 7
Researchers have secured more than 750 carcasses from local trappers
Scientists in Newfoundland and Labrador are working to figure out how far the avian flu has spread through the province's ecosystem, by testing wild, fur-bearing animals.
"This version of the virus is extremely well adapted and very contagious for birds. And it's extremely good at transmitting among birds. It does also transmit into mammals, and we assume that these small mammals that are getting it, they're getting it by consuming infected birds," Andrew Lang, a microbiologist at Memorial University, told CBC Radio Monday
Lang's work is part of a one-year partnership between Memorial, the provincial government and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and involves testing carcasses sent in by trappers including those of weasels, lynx, otters, foxes and more.
"It's important to know how broadly the virus has been distributed. And if it's circulating in these animals, then that's just another risk point for the people that are interacting with those animals."
Health officials have reported around 60 cases of avian flu in humans in North America over the past year, Lang said. While most of those have been mild cases, some people have reported severe illness in British Columbia and California — which recently declared a state of emergency.
Risk of transmission to humans is also relatively low, Lang said, given how rare interactions between wild animals and the average person are.
But for trappers, it's a different situation.
"It's just another sort of reservoir for the virus where things could change in the virus that make it more suitable for replicating in mammals. And that has potential future risk for the broader population," he said, adding the research they gather will likely go into risk assessments for trappers.
Trappers are also key in the research process, and have been providing carcasses to researchers at a price of $10 per animal. Lang said the uptake has been tremendous, and researchers have already secured more than 500 carcasses from Newfoundland and over 250 from Labrador.
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