Canada slowest to report avian flu samples to global database, UBC researchers find
Federal agency says sample collection more time consuming in a country the size of Canada
Two University of B.C. researchers have found that Canada is the slowest country at reporting H5N1 avian flu data to a global genome database, which they say could have implications as scientists track the mutations of the rapidly spreading virus.
But the agency leading the country's response to the outbreak says that sample collection in a country the size of Canada is more time-consuming, and characteristics that provide new insight into the virus are usually reported within days.
In an article in Nature Biotechnology on Tuesday, Sarah Otto, a professor, and Sean Edgerton, a PhD student, both with UBC's zoology school, showed the global average for countries reporting avian flu samples to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) was around 228 days for countries reporting at least 50 genetic sequences.
While some countries like the Czech Republic and the Netherlands reported data within a month, Canada was the slowest at 618 days on average, the researchers found.
As the H5N1 avian flu virus wreaks havoc on poultry flocks — particularly in B.C., where millions of birds have been culled — the scientists say that reporting virus samples promptly could help researchers detect virus mutations faster.
The call for faster data reporting comes as the H5N1 avian flu virus has led to a severe infection for a B.C. teenager, and concerns have spiked after it caused a death in the U.S.
"The sooner that data, genetic data, is made available, the better able different researchers are ... to get a handle on that, and bring their expertise into the field and answer questions," Edgerton said. "Whether it's focused on the epidemiology of H5N1 or the evolution or immunology, for instance."
The PhD student said that animal health and human health are closely linked, and it would be ideal for any mutations in animals to be reflected promptly as opposed to samples from months prior.
"We can better design vaccines, not just for humans, but also for animals," he said. "They're in often in pretty tight quarters, and so it's very easy for diseases to run through an entire farm very quickly."
Otto said that while the avian flu virus hasn't shown much evidence of human-to-human transmission, it was evolving rapidly to spread to other species like cows, and scientists are looking at parts of the virus that could attach to human cells.
The professor said that Canada initially lagged behind in reporting COVID-19 samples to the GISAID database, having an average reporting time of 88 days early in the pandemic. But now, the researcher says the reporting time is down to 16 days.
"We know also with COVID, we got a lot better when we looked at our delays and tried to figure out where were the big stumbling blocks," she said.
CFIA says delays down to multiple factors
A spokesperson for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency — which is leading Canada's response to the avian flu outbreak — said that the time taken to upload samples to GISAID is based on a number of factors.
According to the agency, sample collection is challenging and time-consuming for a country the size of Canada, where samples are collected by numerous agencies, often in remote areas.
The spokesperson said that samples are often collected over a long duration of time, and sample collection could continue until a sufficient number can be sent for testing.
"However, any time the genome sequences display characteristics that provide new insights into the behaviour of the virus, extra effort is taken by the [National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease] to make those sequences publicly available as quickly as possible," the spokesperson wrote.
"For example, a viral variant that confers drug resistance was recently found on a poultry farm in British Columbia. The complete viral genome was made publicly available 13 days after the oropharyngeal swab was collected from the farm suspected to be infected with HPAI."
The spokesperson added that much of the reporting delays were due to the challenges in collecting samples from wildlife, and reporting times for samples from domestic poultry were relatively short at two to three weeks.
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