00:02It looks like business as usual at this Tasmanian egg factory, but the threat of the H5 bird
00:08flu looms large.
00:10Always a sense of nerves, you just don't know, there's no silver bullet unfortunately
00:15to give everyone 100% peace of mind.
00:17The state's largest egg producer ships about 43 million eggs around Tasmania each year,
00:22but faces the prospect of euthanising its chickens if the deadly strain takes hold.
00:28If H5 got into our operations, the likelihood would be that we would need to euthanise
00:35the majority, if not all, of our hens that we have on our farm.
00:38Mass killing of birds helped to contain the H7 bird flu strain and is said to again be
00:44used in an attempt to eradicate the new variant.
00:47So that's one of the things that we've been looking at, the most humane method to actually
00:52euthanise lots and lots of birds if we need to, but hopefully we won't need to.
00:56Chicken producer Nicholls Poultry has placed its sassafras farms into lockdown.
01:01It's enacting strict biosecurity processes, but there's little it can do on its free range
01:07farms.
01:07It's in God's hands as such, you know, there's nothing you can do to stop wild birds migrating
01:12with your flocks.
01:13There's nothing you can do to stop animals going into your flocks.
01:16It's a risk that we're taking.
01:19Tasmanian authorities are on high alert, but say the state is ready if there's an outbreak.
01:24We're so fortunate to be the last continent to get this detection.
01:31It's given us two years to really put pedal to the metal and get ourselves prepared.
01:36Plans are in place to protect threatened species, including the critically endangered orange-bellied
01:42and swift parrots.
01:43The endangered Tasmanian devil is also considered to be a risk of contracting H5, but experts say
01:50it's unlikely to wipe out the population.
01:53There is enough devil densities and infection rates and transmission dynamics to sustain a
01:59wave of infections across the entire state.
02:01I think at this state it would be, I wouldn't consider very likely.
02:05A state with a devil of a fight on its hands.
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