Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, Canada

March 12, 2004

Impact Worksheet

Summary:  On March 9, 2004, Canada reported the detection of both low and high pathogenic forms of avian influenza virus subtype H7N3 on a farm in Fraser Valley, British Columbia.  The affected farm is a broiler-breeding operation comprised of two units of approximately 9,000 birds each.  This is the first reported occurrence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Canada .

Canada has approximately 167 million poultry and produced close to 1.1 million metric tons of poultry meat in 2003.  In terms of total world stocks and production, these products accounted for 3.5% of world poultry stocks and 4.3% of world poultry meat production in 2003.  Canada has approximately 394 thousand metric tons of egg production, accounting for 0.6% of world production in 2003.

The US imported substantial quantities of poultry from Canada during 2002-2003, including live poultry, processed and unprocessed poultry products, eggs, and feathers.  During 2002-2003, approximately 19 million live turkeys, ducks, geese and guineas, 16 million live chickens and 24 million kg of unprocessed chicken meat were imported from Canada .  During this same period, approximately 2.5 million dozen hatching eggs were imported.

The US has temporarily banned imports of live poultry and poultry products from British Columbia and tightened requirements for movement of pet birds from British Columbia into the US .  For the most current information on import restrictions, please see aphis.usda.gov/NCIE/importing.html.

How extensive is highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Canada , and what was Canada ’s disease status prior to the outbreak?

On March 9, 2004, Canada reported ongoing testing of avian influenza (AI) virus detected on a Fraser Valley, British Columbia farm indicated that both low and high pathogenic forms of the H7N3 virus were present on the farm.  The presence of the low pathogenic form of AI on the Fraser Valley farm was reported on February 19, 2004.  The affected farm is a broiler-breeding operation comprised of two units of approximately 9,000 birds each.  One unit contained 52- week-old birds and the virus recovered from these birds was confirmed as low pathogenicity with an intravenous pathogenicity index of 0.0.  The second unit contained 24-week-old birds.  Virus recovered from the 24-week-old birds included both low pathogenic and high pathogenic strains (intravenous pathogenicity index of 3.0).

The affected farm was quarantined on February 18 and depopulation of the flock was completed on February 20.  An active surveillance program within a 5 kilometer radius of the affected farm has been established.  There has been no evidence of spread to neighboring farms to date.

This is the first ever reported occurrence of HPAI in Canada .

Source: OIE Disease Information Reports, Canadian Food Inspection Agency Press Release, March 9

What is Canada ’s place in the international market for poultry and poultry products?

Canada has approximately 167 million poultry and produced close to 1.1 million metric tons of poultry meat in 2003 (Table 1).  In terms of total world stocks and production, these products accounted for 3.5% of world poultry stocks and 4.3% of world poultry meat production in 2003.  Canada has approximately 394 thousand metric tons of egg production, accounting for 0.6% of world production in 2003.

According to the Statistics Canada Census of Agriculture, the province of British Columbia contained 15%, 10%, and 16% of Canadian stocks of chickens, turkeys, and other poultry, respectively, in 2001.

   Table 1: Poultry Stocks and Production, Canada, 2002 and 2003

Source: United Nations FAO

Canada exported approximately 17.5 million chickens, turkeys and ducks valued at close to 32 million dollars in 2002 (Table 2).  Canada ’s share of world exports of live poultry ranged from almost 1% of chickens to almost 16% of turkeys during 2002.  Canada exported approximately 100 thousand metric tons of chicken, turkey, and duck meat accounting for 4.4% of world exports for these products in 2002.

According to the World Trade Atlas, Canada edition, the United States (US) received 95% of Canada ’s exports of live poultry in 2003.  The Canadian province of British Columbia accounted for 22% of Canada ’s exports of live poultry in 2003.  South Africa was the largest importer of fresh or frozen poultry meat and offal from Canada in 2003, receiving almost 20% of exports.  Other large importers of fresh or frozen poultry meat and offal from Canada were the United States (18%) and Russia (13%).  Approximately 18% of Canada ’s exports of fresh and frozen poultry meat and offal were from the province of British Columbia in 2003. 

Canada exported close to 2.9 million dozen hatching eggs, 185 thousand dozen eggs in the shell (fresh or preserved), and 7 million kilograms of eggs and yolks not in the shell in 2003 (Table 3).  Exports of hatching eggs to four countries, Germany (36%), US (32%), Austria (11%), and Turkey (6.5%), accounted for 85.5% of exports in 2003.  Approximately 4% of Canada ’s exports of hatching eggs were from the province of British Columbia.  The top 3 countries importing eggs in the shell, fresh or preserved, from Canada in 2003 were China (30%), US (30%), and Turkey (15%).  Close to 53% of Canada ’s exports of eggs in the shell, fresh or preserved were from British Columbia.  The two largest importers in 2003 of Canadian eggs not in the shell were the US (50%) and Japan (32%).  Approximately 60% of Canada ’s exports of eggs not in the shell were from British Columbia.

Sources:  World Trade Atlas, Canada edition, United Nations FAO

Table 2:  Exports of live poultry and poultry products, Canada , 2001 - 2002

Exports
	Quantity (# head or mt)	Value (1000 $)	Quantity (# head or mt)	Value (1000 $)	Quantity (# head or mt)	Value (1000 $)
	2001		2002		% of World in 2002
Live Birds (1,000 head)
Chickens	5,260	4,177	7,182	7,285	0.9	0.8
Turkeys	8,202	17,848	9,140	18,312	15.6	16.3
Ducks	1,027	5,547	1,201	6,190	7.4	17.3
Poultry meat (metric tons)
Chicken meat	68,145	57,683	83,017	61,898	1.1	0.9
Turkey meat	13,097	8,494	15,130	8,949	1.6	0.8
Duck meat	1,702	6,094	2,739	7,970	1.7	2.5

Source: United Nations FAO

            Table 3:  Exports of Eggs, Canada , 2002-2003

Source:  World Trade Atlas, Canada edition

What are the US imports of poultry or poultry products from Canada ?

The US imported substantial quantities of poultry from Canada during 2002-2003, including live poultry, processed and unprocessed poultry products, eggs, and feathers (Table 4).  During 2002-2003, approximately 19 million live turkeys, ducks, geese and guineas, 16 million live chickens and 24 million kg of unprocessed chicken products were imported from Canada .  During this same period, approximately 2.5 million dozen hatching eggs were imported.  For January-September, 2003, 42 pet birds came into the US from Canada .

Subsequent to the occurrence of HPAI in British Columbia, the US has temporarily banned all live poultry and poultry product imports from British Columbia.  Import requirements have been tightened for pet birds from British Columbia, and now include an import permit and quarantine.  For the most current information on restrictions on pet and live bird and poultry product imports from British Columbia, please see aphis.usda.gov/NCIE/importing.html.

Sources: World Trade Atlas, USDA/APHIS/VS Import Export

Table 4.  US Imports of poultry products from Canada , 2002-2003

Product	2002		2003
	Value (million US $)	Quantity*	Value (million US $)	Quantity
Total live chickens	5.98	6,951,769 hd	8.70	9,065,476 hd
Live turkey, ducks, geese, guineas (T/D/G/G)	23.56	10,203,271 hd	21.10	8,949,849 hd
Live birds, other	0.28	44,715 hd	0.44	48,193 hd
Chicken, fresh, chilled or frozen including liver and offal	24.63	12,302,197 kg	29.41	11,795,236 kg
T/D/G/G fresh, chilled or frozen including liver and offal	8.58	2,903,742 kg	10.08	3,861,691 kg
Pig and poultry fat, fresh, chilled, frozen, salted, dried, smoked	1.29	2,047,576 kg	1.59	1,821,801 kg
Hatching eggs	8.36	1,535,067 dz	5.48	942,912 dz
Table eggs, fresh, preserved or cooked	0.19	55,766 dz	0.05	15,806 dz
Egg products, processed	9.01	3,812,836 dz	6.83	3,500,608 kg
Feathers or down, processed	0.87	259,527 kg	0.95	249,448 kg
Feather meal and waste	1.02	3,965,794 kg	0.65	2,238,579 kg
Pig and poultry fat, rendered	0.04	203,296 kg	0.94	1,248,235 kg
Prepared meat and meals, chicken, T/D/G/G, including liver	39.11	9,536,243 kg	47.24	11,179,075 kg
Egg and other albumin	3.51	2,865,063 kg	2.35	1,824,204 kg

*hd=head; kg=kilogram; dz=dozen

Source: World Trade Atlas

What is the level of passenger traffic arriving in the United States from Canada ?

In fiscal 2002, 8,249,277 air passengers arrived in the US from Canada on direct flights.  However, some of the passengers would have been in transit and may not have originated their travel in Canada .  About 4,126,000 air passenger arrivals in the US reported Canada as their country of residency.  In 2002, about 76 million people entered the US from Canada by personal vehicle, bus, train and by foot.   About 7 million trucks entered the US and about 1.8 million railcars entered the US in 2002. 

As part of USDA, APHIS-PPQ’s Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Monitoring system, 481 air passengers arriving in the US from Canada in fiscal year 2003 were sampled for items of agriculture interest.  None of the 481 passengers was found to be carrying any items of interest. 

Sources:  Office of Travel & Tourism Industries, US Department of Commerce, USDA APHIS-PPC Agricultural Quarantine Inspection databases, Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

CEI’s plans for follow up:

CEI currently has no plans for further reporting on highly pathogenic avian influenza in Canada .

If you need more information or if you want to comment on this worksheet, you may reply to this message, or contact Judy Akkina (970-494-7324) or Kathy Orloski (970-494-7221).