CFIA's Role in West Nile Virus Activities

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is an active participant of the West Nile Virus National Steering Committee. This group has developed the National Guidelines for Response to West Nile Virus. These guidelines recognize that the WNV is an indigenous disease in Canada and that passive surveillance of horses and other mammals has limited sentinel value in routine surveillance for WNV virus. Consequently, the CFIA has discontinued testing horses as part of its contribution to the overall WNV early detection activities and the responsibility for WNV diagnosis currently resides in provincial or other laboratories.

Surveillance

Under the Health of Animals Act and Reportable Disease Regulations,all veterinary laboratories in Canada are required to report to CFIA upon suspicion or diagnosis of WNV in all domestic animals species including horses. The laboratories are expected to report all suspicious or confirmed cases of WNV in domestic species to the CFIA by forwarding pertaining information directly to the Animal Disease Surveillance Unit. E-mail: notification@inspection.gc.ca or by facsimile at 450-768-0064.

The clinical manifestation of WNV virus infection may resemble some CFIA's other reportable diseases. In horses (rabies) and poultry (Newcastle Disease and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza) these must be ruled out in situations where these species show neurological signs of disease. CFIA must be contacted to ensure that no other disease that could be foreign to Canada is occurring.

Under the Health of Animals Act, the CFIA does not have any obligation or commitment to take action when told of diseases listed as notifiable. The CFIA will gather that information primarily to meet Canada's international obligations for surveillance of diseases in livestock and for public health purposes.

Horses and Domestic Poultry

In certain cases, after reportable diseases have been ruled out, if clinical signs of WNV are found in domestic species that are raised for food production, the CFIA will still play a role in ensuring that the animals are allowed to be slaughtered only after they have recovered completely and a period of time has passed after the clinical signs have ended.

CFIA has prepared three documents on how it will respond to situations where neurological clinical signs are reported in horses and domestic poultry. The main objective of these documents is to provide guidelines on how CFIA will manage situations where the primary task for the agency would be confirmation or exclusion of the reportable diseases which clinically could resemble WNV (e.g. rabies in horses or Newcastle in avian species).

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency Response to Central Nervous System Signs in Domestic Birds of the Order of Anseriformes (Domestic Geese and Ducks) in West Nile Virus Endemic Areas - Field investigation.
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency Response to central nervous system Signs in Horses in West Nile Virus Endemic Areas - Field and Registered Establishment Investigation
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency Response to West Nile Virus in Slaughtered Birds of the Order of Galliformes (Commercial Chickens, Turkeys, Guinea fowl, Pheasants, Quails), Rheas, Emus and Ostriches.

Other activities

The Disease Surveillance Unit informs CFIA's field staff of all WNV cases reported in domestic animals on a regular basis; this ensures our staff has current and easily accessible information on the WNV activities in their areas and they could use that information for live animals or meat products export certification if required.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is responsible for licensing veterinary biologics in Canada. For more information on the WNV vaccines for horses, you may wish to review: Veterinary Biological Products Licensed in Canada.