The Critteraid animal sanctuary in Summerland has had a positive case of H5N1 at its facility.<\/p>\n
H5N1 is an avian influenza virus circulating among wild birds and poultry in the province. The virus can also cause illness in people.<\/p>\n
Critteraid announced the case on its Facebook page on Friday, Nov. 7. Staff at Critteraid have been working with veterinary professionals, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Interior Health and epidemiology divisions.<\/p>\n
“Our team and volunteers are devastated,” a statement from Critteraid reads. “The animals in our care are the centre of everything we do, and the emotional weight of this moment is intense.”<\/p>\n
The Summerland announcement comes after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had put down more than 300 ostriches at Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, following an earlier outbreak of avian influenza there.<\/p>\n
Critteraid, a nonprofit animal sanctuary has functioned in Summerland for more than 30 years. Its facility has many animals including cats, dogs and farm animals.<\/p>\n
The organization has said it will share details about the H5N1 case as information becomes available.<\/p>\n
“We want to be very clear: we are not hiding anything from our community,” Critteraid said. “We are simply trying to move through this with care, accuracy and integrity while also supporting our animals and each other.”<\/p>\n
Lori Stewart, president of Critteraid, said the incident began when a bird at the sanctuary died on Oct. 25. By the following Monday, three more birds had died. All the chickens at the facility had died before test results came back.<\/p>\n
Since Critteraid had ducks in the same building, the ducks were also put down, Stewart said.<\/p>\n
The virus has not spread to other animals at this time.<\/p>\n
“I did everything I could to shut it down and contain it,” Stewart said.<\/p>\n
She added that Critteraid will have discussions on how to create a safe facility for its birds.<\/p>\n
This is the first time an avian influenza case has occurred at the facility.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it is working with the organization on next steps for any exposed birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
H5N1 virus was detected in early November <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":159717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[123,124,119],"class_list":["post-159716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-regional-news","tag-animal-shelters","tag-avian-flu","tag-summerland"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n