Canada’s Surveillance Efforts for HPAI in Dairy Cattle and Beyond

Introduction

In this seminar, the status of the HPAI outbreak in US dairy cattle and other species will be covered. This will be followed by a description of Canada’s surveillance and response plan, its collaborative multi-jurisdictional development, how it closely resembles the recently launched US surveillance plan and how this form of surveillance could be used for future outbreaks and disease detection on Canadian dairy farms and beyond.

Hosted by: The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)’s Data, Surveillance and Foresight Branch (DSFB) and National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID).

Date and time: January 28, 2025 | 1:00 to 2:00 Eastern Time / 12:00 to 1:00 Central Time

Language: English

Introduction

Please join us on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, from 1-2pm ET, for the fourth seminar of the 2024-2025 Surveillance Advances season, “Canada’s Surveillance Efforts for HPAI in Dairy Cattle and Beyond.” In this seminar, the status of the HPAI outbreak in US dairy cattle and other species will be covered. This will be followed by a description of Canada’s surveillance and response plan, its collaborative multi-jurisdictional development, how it closely resembles the recently launched US surveillance plan and how this form of surveillance could be used for future outbreaks and disease detection on Canadian dairy farms and beyond.

Learning Objectives

  1. Attendees will learn about Canada’s response to HPAI in cattle including our surveillance strategy.
  2. Attendees will learn about the US surveillance plan with similarities to Canada’s approach
  3. Attendees will see where this surveillance plan could be used to develop other surveillance initiatives for the dairy sector 

Speakers

1. Dr. Murray Gillies, CAHSS Interim Director, Animal Health Canada.

I grew up on my family’s dairy farm in Sussex, New Brunswick. I took animal science with a focus on agriculture at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College before completing my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island. After graduating, I spent two years in New Zealand in a dairy focused clinic before moving back to New Brunswick where I worked for the Government of New Brunswick for 5 years in large animal practice. In September 2018, I joined the veterinary pharmaceutical company Vetoquinol as a technical services veterinarian, where I worked for 4.5 years. I am the interim director of the Canadian Animal Health Surveillance System (CAHSS), a division of Animal Health Canada. I am a past president of the Canadian Association of Bovine Veterinarians and the current District 12 director for the American Association of Bovine Practitioners. I am working on a master’s in animal health management at the Atlantic Veterinary College with a project focusing on antimicrobial use on dairy farms. I was the dairy subject matter expert for the Canadian Veterinary Medical Associations Stewardship of Antimicrobial use by Veterinarians Initiative (SAVI) in 2018 and 2022. I remain very active in the day-to-day operations of our dairy farm. I am very passionate about the Canadian bovine veterinary, dairy, and agricultural sectors. I love discussing dairy practice, bovine veterinary medicine, and science in general. My other interests include video games, anime, nature, hiking, and history.

Moderators

  1. Robert Sager, NCCID
  2. Chia-Yu Lin, DSFB

Format

This seminar will be held on Zoom. The presentation will be 30 minutes followed by approximately 15 minutes for a discussion and question period from attendees. Presentation materials in English and French will be distributed through NCCID media channels.

Access Instructions

All instructions for the seminar series will be posted on the Zoom registration page and will be emailed to all registrants prior to the event.

Past Webinars

Surveillance Advances launched in September 2023 with a discussion about the foundational concepts of public health surveillance and the future opportunities that lie ahead. Subsequent seminars featured topics related to health inequalities (seminar 2),  data science (seminar 3),  maternal and newborn health (seminar 4), and injury surveillance (seminar 5). For a complete list of seminars and to view their recordings, please visit the Surveillance Advances webcasts page

Accreditation Statement

Surveillance Advances is a self-approved group learning activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Surveillance Advances is also approved by the Council of Professional Experience for professional development hours for members of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors.