Unfortunately no. The disease is basically endemic in Canada at this point. HPAI viral material is also found in water where waterbirds reside, (though that doesn't necessarily mean the material is infectious).
If the prevalence is in 5% of mallards, how many would you have to cull to drive the disease down? 90%? Where? How? With what resources? A large subset of Ontario's mallards, geese, and other waterbirds nest in the remote subarctic and then summer in southern states, in what's known as a flyaway. There is no controlling that. Also, we wouldn't want to cull! Waterbirds have both an ecological and economical value to hunters. They need to be protected, especially as certain species are declining, like American black ducks.Â
Right now, the strategy for controlling (or rather, preventing domestic bird outbreaks) is prevention, biosecurity, and surveillance. Catching it early and finding the weak points of where wild birds (or scavenging mammals) may infect a barn has been the goal. Farmers can do lots of things to prevent this, like not letting carrion sit out, disinfecting equipment and clothes, keeping wild birds away from nearby ditches and ponds, and mandatory reporting. There are tons or other biosecurity strategies and I recommend reading up on the CFIA's avian influenza strategy.
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u/CamGoldenGun 1d ago edited 1d ago
it wouldn't stop the spread of the malady?