Avoid contact with sick or dead birds, health officials urge, amid concerns about avian flu

Carolyn Law didn't think much of it when a snow goose landed in her Richmond, B.C., backyard, on Halloween. 

But hours later it had barely moved. Then it started bobbing its head repeatedly. About eight hours after she first saw the bird, it rolled over, began convulsing and died.

"It was quite a sad thing to see, actually — really frightening," Law said.

Law said she called a wildlife rescue group and was told the symptoms suggested avian flu rather than a physical injury, but without testing it couldn't be confirmed.

Encounters like Law's are under new scrutiny after a B.C. teenager tested positive for bird flu in the first presumptive case of human infection occurring in Canada. The patient is in critical condition.

Experts and health authorities say while the risk of human infection with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza remains low, people should avoid contact with sick or dead birds.

"People who work with animals or in environments contaminated by animals should take precautions, including using other personal protective measures to reduce the risk of getting or spreading respiratory infectious diseases," Health Canada said in a statement.

Concerns around bird flu have heightened in recent years, with the virus resulting in millions of poultry across North America being culled. 

Health Canada said in a statement that current evidence domestically shows that "risk to the general public remains low."

The agency said rare human infections only occur when a person closely interacts with an infected bird, and there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus. Its website says there is no risk of infection by eating thoroughly cooked poultry, eggs or meat.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said in a news conference on Tuesday that the source of infection wasn't clear.

Henry said the only other case in Canada was recorded in Alberta in 2014, in a person who likely contracted the virus while travelling in China.

But Henry acknowledged the risk posed by wild birds.

"One of the important things that we need to do right now, recognizing that this virus is circulating in wild foul, geese and ducks primarily, [is] be sure that if you're in contact with sick birds or dead birds, that you don't touch them directly [and] keep pets away from them," she said, noting that in Ontario a dog was infected after biting a dead bird.