The National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease (NCFAD) in Winnipeg is designated as a World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Reference Laboratory for avian influenza (poultry).
Mandate
To advance science and research on the diagnosis, surveillance and control of influenza A viruses of animal origin and to provide scientific advice, assistance and technical training to WOAH member countries.
Latest updates
- The latest WOAH Annual Reports are available online (once on the page, scroll to "Avian influenza")
Activities and services
- Confirmatory testing for influenza A viruses of animal origin according to WOAH standards
- Developing, adapting and validating new diagnostic methods according to the WOAH standards and distribute them to Canadian Animal Health Laboratorians Network
- Providing reference laboratory materials to other WOAH and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) affiliated laboratories
- Provide scientific and technical advice and training for personnel from WOAH member countries
- Conduct risk assessment studies of novel and emerging influenza A viruses in different animal models
- Conduct vaccine efficacy testing for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in collaboration with Canadian and international organisations
- Publish epizootological data on HPAI outbreaks with national partners and WOAH member countries
- Conduct influenza A virus surveillance in wild animals with our partners from provincial and federal wildlife services
- Provide genetic data and reference influenza A viruses for the World Health Organization (WHO) vaccine composition meeting (VCM) for avian and swine influenza As, as part of the WOAH/FAO Network of Expertise on Animal Influenza (OFFLU)
Current research interests
- Virus pathogenicity and transmission studies in birds and mammals
- Evaluation of phylogenetic and phylodynamic techniques to account for mutation rates, selection, reassortment, recombination and other epidemiological complexities during an outbreak
- Testing efficacy of influenza A vaccines and evaluating new vaccine platforms of interest
- Developing and evaluating innovative molecular and serologic diagnostic assays
- Incursions of avian influenza viruses by long distance migratory birds to Canada
The CFIA has also identified several additional priority areas to focus Canada's support for science and research on challenges related to the prevention, detection, response and management of HPAI in animals.
Twinning and capacity-building projects
- WOAH Twinning Project between El Laboratorio Nacional de Diagnóstico Veterinario (LNDV) in Colombia and the NCFAD to implement laboratory diagnostic methods for the surveillance, identification and characterization of avian influenza, completed in 2013
- WOAH Twinning Project between Ghana's Veterinary Services Directorate and the NCFAD to build capacity for disease prevention, detection and control of avian influenza, completed in 2023
More information
- Avian influenza [woah.org]
- CFIA reference laboratories and collaborating centres
- Reference Laboratories [woah.org]
- Early detection for rapid protection – monitoring milk for avian influenza
- Fact checking highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)
- Twinning is winning: collaborating for the global management of animal diseases
- In Ghana, veterinary laboratories actively support COVID-19 testing of human samples [woah.org]
- How Canada paved the road for COVID-19 testing in Ghana
Selected publications
- Detection of a reassortant swine- and human-origin H3N2 Influenza A virus in farmed mink in British Columbia, Canada
- Avian influenza virus circulation and immunity in a wild urban duck population prior to and during a highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreak
- Transmission dynamics of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus at the wildlife-poultry-environmental interface: a case study
- Descriptive epidemiology and phylogenetic analysis of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b in British Columbia (B.C.) and the Yukon, Canada, September 2022 to June 2023
- M2e nanovaccines supplemented with recombinant hemagglutinin protect chickens against heterologous HPAI H5N1 challenge
- Multiple transatlantic incursions of highly pathogenic avian influenza clade 2.3.4.4b A(H5N5) virus into North America and spillover to mammals
- Avian influenza viruses in wild birds in Canada following incursions of highly pathogenic H5N1 virus from Eurasia in 2021–2022
- Spatiotemporal patterns of low and highly pathogenic avian influenza virus prevalence in murres in Canada from 2007 to 2022—a case study for wildlife viral monitoring
- Descriptive epidemiology and phylodynamics of the "first wave" of an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b) in British Columbia and the Yukon, Canada, April to September 2022
- Influenza A(H5N1) virus infections in 2 free-ranging black bears (Ursus americanus), Quebec, Canada
- Recurring trans-Atlantic incursion of clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 viruses by long distance migratory birds from northern Europe to Canada in 2022/2023
- Rapid evolution of A(H5N1) influenza viruses after intercontinental spread to North America
- Characterization of neurotropic HPAI H5N1 viruses with novel genome constellations and mammalian adaptive mutations in free-living mesocarnivores in Canada
- Phylogenetic inference of the 2022 highly pathogenic H7N3 avian influenza outbreak in northern Mexico
- A threat from both sides: multiple introductions of genetically distinct H5 HPAI viruses into Canada via both East Asia-Australasia/Pacific and Atlantic flyways
- Transatlantic spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 by wild birds from Europe to North America in 2021
- Evolutionary dynamics of Mexican lineage H5N2 avian influenza viruses
- Heterogeneity of early host response to infection with 4 low-pathogenic H7 viruses with a different evolutionary history in the field
- H7N9 influenza virus containing a polybasic HA cleavage site requires minimal host adaptation to obtain a highly pathogenic disease phenotype in mice
- Intercontinental spread of Asian-origin H7 avian influenza viruses by captive bird trade in 1990's