Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is a contagious viral disease that continues to impact domestic and wild birds. In March of 2024, HPAI was detected in dairy cattle in Texas, and has since spread rapidly across the United States. To date, it has not been detected in Canada in cattle.

In this new miniseries, Dr. Murray Gillies, a veterinarian and the Interim Division Director for the Canadian Animal Health Surveillance System, and Dr. Henry Ceelen, a bovine veterinarian and Secretary Treasurer for the Canadian Association of Bovine Veterinarians, join Dr. Steven Roche of ACER Consulting to discuss HPAI in dairy cattle, including disease presentation, spread, and prevention, as well as the Canadian response.

Links of interest

• CFIA: Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in cattle
• USDA: HPAI in livestock
• Dairy Farmers of Canada and Animal Health Canada: HPAI: Biosecurity Recommendations for Dairy Farmers
• National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health: Avian influenza A(H5N1) in dairy farms: An update on public health and food safety concerns

Les moustiques - si vous vivez au Canada, vous devez faire face à ces insectes nuisibles pendant une grande partie du printemps et de l'été. Avec le réchauffement climatique, il est probable que nous verrons apparaître quelques nouvelles variétés de cet insecte irritant dans l'espace aérien canadien, et malheureusement, la variété des espèces signifie également que nous devons faire face à de nouvelles maladies à transmission vectorielle.

Les moustiques sont porteurs et contribuent à la propagation d'une variété de conditions infectieuses à une variété d'espèces - il est donc important pour la santé publique et la santé animale de garder "l’œil dans le ciel" et de surveiller leurs mouvements, leur propagation et leurs préférences en matière d'habitat.

Heureusement, le Canada dispose d'un groupe de chercheurs qui surveillent et d'étudient ce phénomène. Dre Antoinette Ludwig, vétérinaire et épidémiologiste au Laboratoire national de microbiologie de l'Agence de la santé publique du Canada, et Marc Avramov, candidat au doctorat à l'Université Carlton, étudient les maladies transmises par les moustiques et le risque qu'elles représentent pour les populations humaines et animales, ainsi que l'impact du changement climatique sur ces maladies.

Liens d’intérêt:

• Informations sur la Dre Antoinette Ludwig et ses recherches
• Détails du projet Timo-CS
• Relationships between water quality and mosquito presence and abundance: A systematic review and meta-analysis
  • Avramov, Marc & Thaivalappil, Abhinand & Ludwig, Antoinette & Miner, Lauren & Cullingham, Catherine & Waddell, Lisa & Lapen, David. (2023). Relationships between water quality and mosquito presence and abundance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Medical Entomology. 10.1093/jme/tjad139.
• Informations sur Marc Avramov et ses recherches

Mosquitoes – if you live in Canada, you deal with these pesky bugs for a significant portion of the spring and summer. With warming global temperatures, it is likely that we will see a few new varieties of this irritating insect appear in the Canadian airspace, and unfortunately, this also means we have some new vector-borne diseases to deal with.

Mosquitoes carry and help to spread a variety of infectious conditions to a variety of species – so keeping an “eye on the sky” and monitoring their movement, spread, and habitat preferences is important to public health and animal health.

Luckily, Canada has a group of researchers that are working to monitor and study this very thing. Dr. Antoinette Ludwig, a veterinarian and epidemiologist with the National Microbiology Laboratory at the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Carleton University PhD candidate Marc Avramov, both study the diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and the risk they pose for both human and animal populations, as well as the impact of climate change on these disease patterns.

Links of Interest:

• Information about Dr. Antoinette Ludwig and her research
• Timo-CS project details
• Relationships between water quality and mosquito presence and abundance: A systematic review and meta-analysis
  • Avramov, Marc & Thaivalappil, Abhinand & Ludwig, Antoinette & Miner, Lauren & Cullingham, Catherine & Waddell, Lisa & Lapen, David. (2023). Relationships between water quality and mosquito presence and abundance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Medical Entomology. 10.1093/jme/tjad139.
• Information about Marc Avramov and his research