OTTAWA – Canada has detected its first suspected case of H5 bird flu in a person, a teenager from the western province of British Columbia, health officials said Saturday.

The teenager likely caught the virus from a bird or animal and received care at a children’s hospital, the province said in a statement.

The province said it is investigating the source of the exposure and identifying the teenager’s contacts. The risk to the public remains low, Canadian Health Minister Mark Holland said in a post on X.

“This is a rare event,” British Columbia Health Officer Bonnie Henry said in a statement. “We are conducting a thorough investigation to fully understand the source of the exposure here in BC”

H5 avian influenza is widespread in wild birds worldwide and causes outbreaks in poultry and dairy cows in the US, with several recent human cases in US dairy and poultry workers.

There has been no evidence of person-to-person spread so far. But if that were to happen, a pandemic could be triggered, scientists said.

In early November, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention required that farm workers who have been exposed to animals with bird flu be tested for the virus, even if they are not showing symptoms.

Bird flu has infected nearly 450 dairy farms in 15 US states since March, and the CDC has identified 46 human cases of bird flu since April.

In Canada, British Columbia has identified at least 22 infected poultry farms since October, and numerous wild birds have tested positive, according to the province.

Canada has had no reported cases in dairy cattle and no evidence of bird flu in milk samples. Reuters