St. John’s will be the setting for a major international symposium on avian influenza this week.

The highly-contagious disease has spread among birds around the world, infecting both wild and domestic flocks and colonies.

While spread to other species, including humans, is relatively rare – it can happen, and is of greatest concern.

The 11th annual symposium, which will run tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, will bring together experts from around the world.

Organizer Andrew Lang, a biologist at Memorial University, calls Newfoundland “ground zero” for avian influenza.

He says the conference last occurred in 2018 and the need for a conference was the impetus for bringing it to St. John’s, the first time it’s been held in Canada. He says St. John’s is where highly-pathogenic aviation influenza virus first showed up in 2021, and subsequently spread all over North America.