00:00McQuarrie Island is a mecca for seals, penguins and other seabirds.
00:08But there are fears the sub-Antarctic sanctuary could be hit with avian influenza within months.
00:14It's really hard to know how grim it's going to be when it arrives.
00:17It could be mass mortality that has a very significant impact on populations or it may
00:23not be the case.
00:24The H5N1 strain was first detected on the Antarctic Peninsula near South America earlier
00:30this year.
00:31Ahead of a potential outbreak in Australia's Antarctic Territory, government agencies are
00:37testing their response plans.
00:39By practising and working through those issues, it really helps set us and the station up
00:45to respond.
00:47Researchers, health officials and logistics personnel have been war-gaming a possible
00:52scenario where following sightings of dead petrels and penguins on a remote tip of McQuarrie
00:58Island, expeditioners discover a bird carcass near the research station.
01:03And so we're working through how do we deal with that carcass, what are the sampling regimes
01:08we might need to think about.
01:10It's not just the impact on wildlife that's raising concerns.
01:14This training exercise is also looking at the potential health and psychological consequences
01:19for expeditioners and researchers.
01:22It's hard to see the animals that you've been monitoring for years sick, dying or the
01:30population numbers declining.
01:31The risk of humans becoming infected with avian influenza we know is quite low.
01:37What we do know though is that it can cause quite severe illness in a number of cases.
01:43Making preparations for an outbreak all the more urgent.
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