Experts say matter of time until bird flu H5N1 reaches Australia

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia is recovering from a devastating outbreak of avian influenza, but the worst is yet to come. Experts say it's only a matter of time until a strain already wreaking havoc overseas lands on our shores.

Transcript

00:001.3 million chickens are buried in this field in Meredith.

00:07It's just stopped everything and been absolutely devastating for us.

00:10Australia is now recovering from its worst ever avian influenza outbreak,

00:14killing about 2 million birds, causing egg shortages,

00:18costing farmers tens of millions of dollars and dozens, if not hundreds, of jobs.

00:23We went from, you know, big revenue business, turnover,

00:26you know, employing 40 or 50 staff to nothing.

00:29But many are worried something much worse is on the horizon.

00:33Avian influenza has dozens of strains.

00:36Those less likely to cause death and disease are low pathogenicity,

00:40while the deadliest are high.

00:42Australia's 2024 outbreaks were caused by high pathogenicity H7 strains,

00:47but the deadliest form of the virus is H5N1,

00:51which has rapidly spread across the globe since 2020,

00:54particularly via migrating wild birds.

00:57It's killed hundreds of millions of birds and spilled over into other species.

01:02Australia is the last large continental landmass that has not had an incursion of H5N1.

01:08It's a matter of when it turns up, not if it turns up.

01:11The CSIRO's Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness

01:14is at the front line of readying the country for H5N1.

01:18Here, scientists are studying and tracking the deadly strain.

01:22This virus is a game changer.

01:24So everything that we thought about it, it's just changing.

01:28So it's doing unusual things and we need to be prepared for it.

01:33While avian influenza can kill humans, it is not considered a major risk.

01:38Instead, H5N1 could cause ecological disaster,

01:42threatening to wipe out local populations of some animals,

01:45such as black swans, seals, sea lions and penguins.

01:49It's a big deal. I mean, as we've seen from overseas,

01:52we've had millions and millions of birds killed.

01:54It's also now spreading in mammals.

01:56It's causing a lot of issues there.

01:58And so you can assume something similar might happen in Australia.

02:01And for chicken growers, the risk of economic damage is high,

02:05along with potential egg and chicken meat shortages,

02:08in a country where the average person consumes 15 kilograms of eggs

02:11and 50 kilograms of chicken meat annually.

02:14We can't stop migrating birds.

02:16And if it gets to Australia, it's most likely to come through migrating birds.

02:20What we need to do is we need to pick up any incursion

02:23if it happens really quickly, and then we need to respond quickly.

02:26With this outbreak now hopefully behind us, all eyes turn to the skies,

02:31in the hopes that this spring's migration doesn't bring H5N1 to our shores.

02:36But experts warn it's a matter of when,

02:39not if, this strain of avian influenza makes its way to Australia.

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