Two turkey farms have been hit by avian metapneumovirus subtype B (aMPV B), which attacks the respiratory system of birds.
It claimed 253 turkeys in southwestern Ontario in recent months, according to the World Animal Health Information System.
The turkeys killed by the virus include 166 birds at a farm in Centre Wellington, north of Guelph, and 87 birds at a farm in Huron-Kinloss, Bruce County.
"For someone in my business, it's very scary because it's a large threat. It's a high risk," orge Cota told CBC news. He is the president of Canadian Select Genetics Ltd. of Putnam, Ont.
"We're really tightening things down, and we're on high alert because this can be very devastating," he said.
Earlier this month, the Feather Board Command Centre (FBCC), which coordinates Ontario's poultry industry in response to disease risks, issued the latest in a number of increasingly urgent warnings to the province's poultry farmers.
It included a recommendation that biosecurity protocols at farms be heightened, and contained a specific warning for farms in Middlesex, Oxford and Perth counties.
Cota said "commercial farmers tend not to think at as highly a level as we do about biosecurity, but I'm sure they're aware and nervous. They've heard a lot of stories out of the U.S., and know what could happen to them," he said.
"But, you never know when someone or something is going to bring it onto your farm. Everyone learns eventually, but many people never think it'll happen to them."
