The Australian government is ramping up preparations for a highly pathogenic and contagious strain of bird flu potentially reaching Australia via its Antarctic territory and Macquarie Island, warning it could devastate wildlife and be passed to people.
Government agencies led by the Australian Antarctic Division at a planning exercise in Hobart on Wednesday were told an influx of the virulent H5N1 Avian flu strain that has killed millions of seabirds, wild birds and poultry overseas was a case of “not if, but when”.
Dr Louise Emmerson, a seabird ecologist with the Antarctic division, said there was a chance the strain could arrive in Australia’s Antarctic territory or on Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean when migratory species return in spring. H5N1 was confirmed in western Antarctica in February. It has also killed an estimated 30,000 sea lions and 17,000 southern elephant seal pups in the Antarctic region.
Emmerson said the strain had been spreading rapidly, including moving to other unexpected animals such as cats, raccoons and cows.
“It’s had a very big impact on many different species … some populations have been really badly impacted with in excess of 90% mortality,” she said.
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, last week warned the highly infectious strain was “coming for us”, and said it could push some bird species towards extinction if it arrived in Australia.
Plibersek said the risk applied to both birds in captive breeding programs and species that were currently doing well in the wild, and that the coming months would be a “particularly dangerous time” as birds migrated from the northern hemisphere. There needed to be an “all-in” approach across government and private organisations to minimise the threat, she said.
The planning exercise on Wednesday was testing emergency response and coordination in the event of an outbreak, preparations for seabird mass mortality and potential wildlife to human transmission.
Robb Clifton, the division’s acting branch head of operations and logistics, said about 80 people were involved. He said scientists would be sent to Australia’s Antarctica territory in spring to check for signs of the strain during summer breeding. Monitoring on Macquarie Island, a world heritage outpost about halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica and a haven for penguins, seals and seabirds, occurs year-round.
“What we do know is spring and going into summer we get a lot more wildlife moving around the sub-Antarctic,” Clifton said. “We know the risk of [transmission] is going up.”
Dr Brant Smith, from the federal agriculture department, said
early detection was key. He said anyone who saw sick, dying or diseased animals should contact authorities.
Australia is the only continent in the world free of the H5N1 variant. Other bird flu variants have been linked to more than 900 cases in humans since 2003, and more than 400 deaths.
