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Commentary
H5N2 Control Zone Covers Southern Half of
British Columbia
Recombinomics Commentary
December 8, 2014 23:45
The above comment describes the key point in today’s CFIA briefing on H5N2 in Fraser Valley, which was also cited by the CFIA as well as the Minister of Agriculture.
Although new outbreaks were not announced today, the location of the fifth farm in Langley, over 13 miles from the closest confirmed farm and two miles from the US border (see map) contributed the the establishment of the large primary zone.
Similarly, the lack of a linkage between the 1st, 2nd, and 5th farms increases the likelihood of a wild bird source carrying high path H5, which has never been reported previously in Canada. Surveys of wild birds have identified a variety of H5 serotypes, including H5N2, but all were of the North American lineage and all were low path.
The presence of high path H5N2 in wild birds would be without precedent in Canada, but has been widely reported in China this year (see map) raising concerns that the H5N2 in Frasier Valley is the Fujian strain (clade 2.3.4).
The CFIA has been silent on the lineage, which would be determined by the sequence. Since the National Labs in Winnipeg undoubtedly has sequences and knows the lineage, the failure to release the information increases concerns that it is Fujian.
Release of Fraser Valley H5N2 sequences would be useful
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