Second wild bird tests positive to H5N1 bird flu
Updated . First published at
A second wild bird in Western Australia has tested positive to the deadly H5N1 bird flu.
Agriculture minister Julie Collins on Monday afternoon said the CSIRO has confirmed a case in a northern giant petrel from the same region of WA as the nation’s first-ever case, a brown skua, near Esperance on the state’s south coast.
This brown skua, found at Cape Le Grand National Park near Esperance and taken in by a carer, is Australia's first confirmed H5 strain case. 9News
Collins confirmed there have been no cases in Australian poultry farms and no evidence of mass wildlife mortalities.
“We have had meet, twice now, the emergency response group that will make decisions about whether we can eradicate or manage the H5 bird flu in Australia,” Collins said.
“That investigation is still in progress.”
She said the group was working to determine if the deadly disease was “established in our wildlife, or established in Australia, other than these two isolated birds”.
Western Australian Premier Roger Cook said “absolute vigilance” was needed with a coastline as large and vulnerable as his state’s.
He said the situation was concerning but one for which the state was prepared.
“Being over-prepared here is obviously key to making sure that we can respond to any biosecurity threat,” Cook said.
He commended the two people who found and reported the two dead birds to authorities.
There has been an increase in community reports of dead birds, and a number of samples are still to be tested, the government’s chief veterinary officer Beth Cookson said.
Environment minister Murray Watt said the cases were “disappointing” but “not unexpected”.
Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said there have been no cases in Australian poultry farms and no evidence of mass wildlife mortalities. Nine
He said Australia was until now the only continent in the world that had not seen the H5N1 strain, which had given authorities time to prepare.
“We only have two confirmed cases but we don’t underplay the threat that this poses to wildlife and our agriculture sector in Australia should this become a wider outbreak,” Watt said.
He said the government had invested $113 million in preparedness for the disease reaching Australian shores, including state and federal planning, training vets, and a susceptibility analysis about what native species would be most at risk in the event of an outbreak.
Inghams share price tanks after precautionary lockdown
Poultry giant Inghams has chosen to pre-emptively lock down all non-essential access to its Western Australian farms and processing operations due to the instances of bird flu.
In a statement to the ASX today, Inghams said it has “moved to a state of heightened biosecurity vigilance to mitigate against any potential risks”.
It confirmed there had been no detection of the virus in Inghams’ operations or supply chain and the measures were precautionary.
Read more
What you need to know about the deadly H5 bird flu strain after suspected case in Australia
It has also applied to the government for an order that would allow it to house its free-range birds indoors.
The company’s shares dropped more than 15 per cent in early trading on Monday before recovering to be down about 4.3 per cent for the day.
Collins reiterated the company had heightened its biosecurity measures, adding the closest poultry farm was more than 300km from Esperance.
People are warned not to touch sick or dead birds they find in the wild, but to report them via the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.
The risk to human health from the H5N1 strain of bird flu is considered low.
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