Australia is recovering from a devastating outbreak of avian influenza, but the worst is yet to come.

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia is recovering from a devastating outbreak of avian influenza, but the worst is yet to come. And experts say it's only a matter of time until the strain – which is 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's now recovering from its worst ever avian influenza outbreak, killing about

00:14two million birds, causing egg shortages, costing farmers tens of millions of dollars

00:20and dozens, if not hundreds, of jobs.

00:23We went from big revenue business, turnover, employing 40 or 50 staff, to nothing.

00:28But many are worried something much worse is on the horizon.

00:33Avian influenza has dozens of strains.

00:35Those less likely to cause death and disease are low pathogenicity, while the deadliest

00:40are high.

00:41Australia's 2024 outbreaks were caused by high pathogenicity H7 strains.

00:47But the deadliest form of the virus is H5N1, which has rapidly spread across the globe

00:52since 2020, particularly via migrating wild birds.

00:56It has 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 is at the front line of readying

01:15the 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, threatening to wipe out local populations

01:44of some animals, such as black swans, seals, sea lions and penguins.

01:48It's a big deal.

01:49It's a big deal.

01:50I mean, you know, as we've seen from overseas, we've had millions and millions of birds killed.

01:53It'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, along with potential egg and

02:06chicken meat shortages in a country where the average person consumes 15 kilograms of

02:10eggs and 50 kilograms of chicken meat annually.

02:13We 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 if it happens really quickly and

02:24then we need to respond quickly.

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

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

02:36But experts warn it's a matter of when, not if, this strain of avian influenza makes its

02:42way to Australia.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended