Quebec researchers say avian flu has been detected in at least two species of seal as an unusually high number of dead seals are being reported on the province’s shorelines.
The Reseau québecois d’urgences pour les mammifères marins says about 100 carcasses of harbour seals were found since January along the south shore of the Lower St. Lawrence region, almost six times more than on an average year.
Stéphane Lair, a professor of veterinary medicine at Université de Montréal, says about 15 of these harbour seals have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1, with a first case detected in grey seals last week….