Mr. Speaker, during the 20th century, influenza threatened the world, in 1918, 1957 and 1968. The latter two pandemics killed a total of three million people. In stark contrast, the Spanish influenza of 1918 killed upwards of 50 million people.
Today the World Health Organization and influenza experts fear a pandemic flu is inevitable and that we are closer to it than at any time since 1968. As of February 27, 2009, the H5N1 influenza virus had infected 408 people and killed 256. Experts estimate that between 11,000 and 58,000 Canadians could die in a future pandemic.
Given the seriousness of the present threat, experts must determine why avian influenza broke out in British Columbia's Fraser Valley in 2004, 2005 and 2008. Therefore, what regular testing is the government undertaking in wild birds and in what species? As over 100 wild bird species carry low pathogenic avian influenza viruses, is the virus being spread from wild birds to domestic birds?
What might low pathogenic influenza strains found in Canada mean in the long term? Recent research shows that H5 and H7 viruses of low pathogenicity can, after circulation for sometimes short periods in a poultry population, mutate into highly pathogenic viruses. What might flyway data suggest, if anything, for the spread of the virus in North America? Some species of migratory waterfowl are now thought to be carrying the H5N1 virus in its highly pathogenic form and introducing it to new geographical areas located along their flight routes.
These are important questions because when wild migratory birds mix with domestic flocks through the sharing of habitat, there is an enhanced potential for genetic re-assortment of avian flu viruses resulting in novel genotypes which could trigger a human influenza pandemic. Once avian influenza is established in domestic poultry, it is a highly contagious disease. One gram of contaminated manure can contain enough virus to infect one million birds.
Is the virus being spread by airborne transmission if birds are in close proximity and with appropriate air movement? There are 600 poultry producers in the Fraser Valley.
Is the environment serving as a source of infection and what monitoring is taking place? When birds visit lakes along their paths, they shed virus into water, the lakes freeze and thus they preserve the virus for months, years, and perhaps much longer. Or is the virus being spread through trade, for example, from flock to flock by contaminated equipment, egg flats, feed trucks, et cetera?
Finally, what specific measures have been taken to look at the intensity of poultry farming in this region? What measures have been taken to reduce the risk of transmission? What specific measures are being taken to protect producers and the $1 billion industry? Most important, what specific measures are being taken to protect civilians from avian influenza in the Fraser Valley when Canada will welcome the world in 2010?