Alberta wildlife centre treating fox kits that became infected with avian influenza
A central Alberta wildlife centre is caring for four young foxes, two of which are on the mend after contracting avian flu.
Staff at the Medicine River Wildlife Centre south of Red Deer say they're starting to see more scavengers needing treatment, and suspect it's because the animals are eating carcasses of birds that died from avian flu.
The organization's executive director Carol Kelly says there were seven fox kits brought in who had consumed an infected bird.
"Two were normal, five were showing the symptoms – and the symptoms for them is blindness and seizures," said Kelly. "Three of them died shortly after arrival, but two have completely recovered."
Kelly says it was hard to diagnose the kits when the first one was found dead on a road.
"Our first assumption was he'd been hit by a car, and then another one came in with exactly the same symptoms, and we thought 'This is weird' – and then more came," she said.
Staff consulted other rehab facilities in the province to confirm their suspicion that the foxes were infected with avian influenza.
"The good thing is, foxes don't pass it on," Kelly said. "They just suffer from it, and if they're given some supportive care and it's not too late, they can recover."
Kelly says that care includes administering a lot of fluids to the kits, and then nursing them back to health with a good diet and water.
However, it's not the same for the magpies, crows, ravens, owls or hawks brought in; they have to be put into the facility's quarantine area and assessed.
Kelly says there isn't much staff can do for those animals, so they're often euthanized and the carcasses incinerated.
Dayna Goldsmith is a diagnostic pathologist at the University of Calgary who has studied many birds who've died after being infected.
"This particular strain is really targeting the brain of these birds," said Goldsmith. "They're getting a lot of inflammation in the brain, so birds that can't fly, that are really weak, that are behaving abnormally because of that inflammation in the brain – which is reported with influenza, but it's not classically what we think of with the flu."
Alberta is one of the provinces that has been hardest hit by avian influenza.
As of May 12, 937,000 birds in Alberta had been culled from 24 farms, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and as of May 13, there were 28 infected flocks in Alberta.
Goldsmith believes cases of avian flu will likely decrease as the spring migration comes to an end. But says it's important for people to take precautions when finding a dead bird, and to report where it was found to the province's 310-0000 toll-free number.
"We're still keeping track of the locations where these animals are dying," she said. "Partly just for documentation purposes, but also to inform the poultry industry in terms of areas that they should be increasing their surveillance on the production animal side."
Kelly says she is hearing from many Albertans who want to know how to protect themselves from avian influenza.
"We're just recommending to people to just be clean, use proper sanitation," said Kelly. "If you're cleaning out your old bird boxes from last year, I doubt if there's any issue with that, but there still is dust, there still are other things, so use gloves, put a dust mask on wash your hands. Just be just be sanitary."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.