(CBC) - Preliminary tests of samples from eight Quebec poultry farms that imported live ducks and eggs from a European country known to have shown evidence of avian flu have found no sign of the dangerous H5N1 strain, a federal official says.
The farms in question have been under quarantine since Wednesday under the watch of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Agency spokesman Alain Charette told CBC.ca on Thursday that the preliminary tests were negative from four of the eight farms. Tests from the other four have not been completed yet.
The agency also said that "as an extra precaution, the CFIA is monitoring the health status of these birds on a daily basis and they are being tested.
"Preliminary results to date are all negative. There has been no indication of illness in these birds to date."
CFIA said any hatching eggs or birds from France, which reported a case of bird flu in February and is the source of the Quebec imports, go into a 30-day quarantine automatically, as "a standard practice for most animal imports" for many years.
- FROM FEB. 18, 2006: http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/AOL/world/national/2006/02/18/birdflu_fr060218.html - France confirms first case of H5N1 bird flu
H5N1, the highly pathogenic strain of avian flu, is feared largely because it has, in rare cases, infected humans in close contact with infected birds, mostly in Southeast Asia.
Scientists are concerned the virus could mutate and pass from human to human, sparking a pandemic.
There have been 174 human cases of avian flu in seven countries, 94 of them fatal, according to the World Health Organization.
Canada has banned all live birds from France as well as poultry products that haven't undergone heat processing. The ducks and eggs reached Quebec before bird flu was confirmed in France.
Canada's poultry industry is no stranger to avian flu, but it has been affected by a strain other than H5N1.
In the winter of 2004, two different forms of the flu infected a farm near Abbotsford, B.C.
Health officials say migratory waterfowl are the most likely carriers of the virus. The waterfowl aren't killed by the virus, but it can spread to farm birds through direct contact or through contaminating water supplies
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