00:02We were expecting this. It was a matter of when, not if. And the government has been
00:07preparing for years for this to happen. It's likely that it's going to grow at an exponential
00:15rate. For the moment, we're just seeing the start of it. At the moment, it's only infections
00:20in seabirds, then it'll go into coastal birds and then into our native bird population.
00:26And the big concern is not so much, you know, these imported birds coming in from Antarctica.
00:33I think that big concern is whether it gets into our poultry, dairy herds and eventually
00:38into our mammals. I want to talk about the native birds first. Australia has such an array
00:44of wonderful bird life. Do we know how this strain might affect the likes of the kookaburra,
00:51the cockatoos, the lorikeets? Look, it's likely that birds that breed quickly
00:56and in large numbers will eventually recover. The flocks will come back again because those
01:03that survive will get immunity and they won't be vastly affected. But for birds that are
01:11slow breeders, like that one chick a year, then it's a totally different story. And there
01:16is a possibility that those birds will eventually become extinct.
01:20What does it do to birds?
01:23Well, it's influenza. It does what it does to humans. It infects them. It affects their
01:30breathing, etc. So the same thing it does to humans, it does to birds. And the big difference
01:37is that this particular strain, the H5 strain, is very, very nasty. It's called highly pathogenic
01:44and it kills almost every bird it infects.
01:48Right. What's the experience from overseas, Adrian? What does the experience teach us about
01:53the progression of this virus down the line?
01:59Well, as I said, we would expect the fast breeders to recover. In many other countries,
02:07they've had huge culls of their poultry. And that's exactly what will happen in Australia.
02:12So if there is an infection in a poultry farm, it would immediately be quarantined. All of
02:18the birds or poultry, they would be culled, unfortunately, but it would be unhumanely.
02:22And then there'll be strict quarantine around that farm to make sure it doesn't escape.
02:26So we have these plans in place to try and prevent it happening and to make sure that if
02:34it does happen, we know what to do. I think probably our biggest concern might well be things
02:40like sea lions. So the sea lions on Kangaroo Island are already in a lot of trouble in terms
02:46of being almost extinct. And unfortunately, this virus has got the potential to take them
02:52over the edge.
02:53Does it transfer to all mammals?
02:57I wouldn't be able to tell you that because I don't think we've actually looked for it in
03:02all mammals, but certainly for most mammals, yes. So for example, in America, they have a marsupial
03:09called the opossum, and they've actually found it in the opossum. Certainly in dairy herds,
03:15in domestic cats, dogs. So the answer is, I would imagine, likely in most mammals, yes.
03:22And I gather the cases of a human contracting it are minuscule.
03:28Well, yes. The reason is that it doesn't really like, it likes latching on to the receptors
03:38in birds. And so most mammals that get it, get it from eating dead birds, not from being
03:44infected, you know, naturally. And so the thing is that the mammals that do tend to get infected
03:51tend to be the predators or the scavengers that go around eating dead animals.
03:58Are there, I mean, the government and the state governments are keen and constantly telling us
04:05that they are prepared and they have these scenarios marked out. Are there any areas that you think,
04:11and given experience from overseas where it's been detected for years, that could be being done,
04:16pre-emptive steps like enclosing poultry farms?
04:21Well, that's already been advice of different poultry farms, so they should keep their birds
04:26either inside or under netting. And there is advice going out to people just keep chooks in their
04:31backyard to avoid sort of wild bird droppings. So all those things are already being done. And our
04:39government, and by that I mean both our federal and state governments, really are well prepared for
04:43this. So for example, we have a vaccine available for poultry workers or other people exposed to
04:53potential virus, that we have antivirals for them. One thing we don't have and probably won't use would
05:02be a vaccine for the actual animals themselves. It would be way too difficult to try and vaccinate wild
05:06animals. And even if we did, I'm not sure it would help. But I think we are doing everything we
05:11can at this
05:11stage. And it's something that we will just have to live with?
05:16Look, I think so. Of course, the big concern for everybody, including myself, is if it ever
05:22mutated, so they've got into the human population. But at the moment, there's been about a thousand
05:27people infected with H5 in the last 20 odd years. And of those, about 48% have died. So it's
05:37quite a
05:37nasty one if it does get into humans. But there's no human to human transmission. All those people are
05:43infected by sort of touching dead birds or dead animals that have been infected. So at the moment,
05:49really, the risk is incredibly low for humans, because it simply doesn't transmit from human to
05:53human. And we are taking great care of making sure that our poultry workers, for example, are well-educated,
06:00where personal protective equipment when they're dealing with birds, etc.
06:05So I can't think of anything we're not doing. I think we're doing everything very well.
