An outbreak of avian influenza has been discovered in Canada's western province of British Columbia, Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew confirmed Thursday.  

According to a Canadian press report, the outbreak, on an undisclosed chicken farm, has been caused by an H7 influenza subtype, which is not the form of avian influenza ravaging poultry stocks in Asia.

"It's isolated at this time. There's no link with human health at this moment," Pettigrew said. "I can tell you that things are really under control at this time," he said.

H7 avian influenza is the form of the virus that was discovered in poultry flocks in Delaware and live bird markets in New Jersey in the United States last week. The subtype sweeping through Asia is a high pathogenicity H5N1 virus.

It is not currently known if the strain in the British Columbia outbreak is a low or high pathogenicity form. High pathogenicity influenza viruses kill virtually all chickens they infect.

"If it's low pathogenicity, this happens quite often in chicken flocks," said influenza expert Dr. Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Center for Disease Control.

"The question is, is it the low pathogenicity as in the United States or could it be high pathogenicity, such as was found in the Netherlands last year. And that information is still pending," he said.

An Agriculture Canada official said virus samples are currently being tested and full subtype information will be available by Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2004)