Canadian officials have assured people is safe to consume eggs, poultry and meat amid the ongoing bird flu outbreak in the United States. McMaster University Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research Director Matthew Miller said in a Tuesday interview with CTV News he would be blunt about the risks to the foods Canadians consume. “No, there’s not,” said Miller. “The agricultural surveillance for bird flu is excellent.”While bird flu is going around, Miller said it is “always important to follow proper cooking standards, because there’s always other nasty bacteria that can come from beef or chicken, but the Canadian standards for processing food protects consumers.” The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said it had not detected bird flu in dairy cattle or other livestock, but it is monitoring the situation closely.Dairy Farmers of Canada Director of Communications Lucie Boileau said Canadian dairy producers adhere to some of the highest biosecurity standards in the world. “It should be noted that only milk from healthy animals is authorized for distribution and for human consumption,” said Boileau. If people have concerns, Egg Farmers of Ontario Communications Team Lead Pam Passerino said they should be assured the CFIA is confident this is not a food safety issue. “Avian influenza is not a threat to food safety, as it only affects birds,” said Passerino.“Poultry and eggs are safe to eat when proper handling and cooking occur.”Miller said farmers who handle cattle and livestock are well-acquainted with the rules of dealing with infections and there are well-established practices in poultry settings to avoid contamination.However, a large part of that is because chickens are housed in enclosures, and it is tougher to protect animals, such as cattle, in free-range environments from migrating birds carrying the viruses. Beyond the effect the disease could have on food, Miller said what farmers and officials should be most concerned with is preventing its spread to people. “The most important thing we can do in the current context is to do everything we can to avoid human transmission,” said Miller. “No amount of energy or expense should be spared in taking every step that we possibly can to avoid those transition events from animals to humans.”A farmer in Texas was diagnosed with bird flu last week and state health officials said he had been in contact with cows presumed to be infected. While experts say it is unlikely this could spread beyond a few isolated cases, they find it necessary to be careful because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Miller concluded by saying people are “painfully tired of dealing with infectious disease and I think that’s led to people wanting to forget about the risks posed, which is understandable.”“But one thing that’s really important to emphasize for our leaders and politicians is the importance of prevention,” he said. Doctors confirmed on April 2 a Texas dairy worker had contracted bird flu, marking it the second time in US history it had spread to a human. READ MORE: Second ever case of avian flu in a human detected in TexasThe first human case was documented in 2022. The farmer experienced mild symptoms and doctors expected he would recover.
