2 hours ago
5
The chances of there being more cases of the highly transmissible bird flu virus than have been reported are extremely high, experts say, given the remoteness of Australia’s southern coastline and a lack of eyes on the ground.
There is also a gap in management of the disease when it comes to helping wildlife rescuers and veterinarians deal with an outbreak should it establish itself in local populations.
Three cases of the deadly strain have been found in Western Australia, in Esperance and Quindalup, while a fourth has been discovered across the border on a remote South Australian beach.
BirdLife Australia president Hugh Possingham said it was not surprising that the first reports had come from places like Esperance and Port Elliot, in South Australia.
“I know they seem isolated, but they actually have quite high concentrations of human beings that go down to the beach, so exactly how many of the seabirds will have turned up on remote beaches, say in the Great Australian Bight, Western Eyre Peninsula, on offshore islands ... I mean, there’s no eyes on the ground really out there,” he said.
“One or two lighthouse keepers, maybe national park rangers, so the chance that we’re going to pick up every bird as it turns up is extremely low.
“The fact that there’s been four now suggests that there’s others around that are infected somewhere along the coast.”
Possingham said people could look for the signs – birds behaving strangely, seemingly uncoordinated, unusually tame.
“There’s a number of signs of just abnormal behaviour,” he said.
“That said, when some of these seabirds tend to turn up, they’re not well anyway, and they don’t really want to be sitting on a beach, they want to be out feeding in the pelagic zone, so it can be very hard.
“That’s why everything has to be reported immediately because you never know which sick bird is sick with avian flu.”
He said Birdlife Australia and other conservation groups were standing by and ready to assist with surveillance issues, but greater support was needed for wildlife rescue groups.
“Wildlife carers, I think they obviously need much higher level of technical training and support,” Possingham said.
“I think local governments have an important role to play here, I think they’re also partly on the front line and certainly support from state and federal government to all those organisations would be good.”
Head of the Biosecurity Program at the Kirby Institute at the University of NSW Raina MacIntyre agreed more needed to be done to support response and management of the virus.
“I think that is a gap there,” she said.
“We saw it with what happened in South Australia, that it was already in the news, but these responders had unprotected contact with the sick birds.
“ I think perhaps we need a triaging system, where you make an assessment; is it an injury or is it something else?
“If it’s a mammalian species and it’s an injury, like it’s been hit by a car, it’s probably okay to respond in the way you normally do. But if it’s unclear what the cause of illness is, you would need to be using PPE.
“I think also you’d have recommendations for PPE that are graded depending on what the national situation is – if it’s become established in wildlife, then it’ll be routine that you’d have to use PPE, which means gloves, good quality respirators, and either an apron or gown.”
In budget estimates in parliament on Wednesday, Greens MLC Jess Beckerling asked whether the state government would help wildlife rescues and veterinary practices set up quarantine facilities, saying many had stated they would no longer be able to receive birds if the virus spread to the local populations.
Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn said the government is providing personal protective equipment and was in discussions with different groups about their needs, but there are currently no concrete plans to help provide quarantine facilities outside one already established at Perth Zoo.
“Sadly, there has not been many effective measures to deal with [bird flu] outside of Australia,” he said.
“We have been very fortunate to have had no virus present in our populations to date, but I don’t underestimate the devastating effect it will have on our wildlife if it becomes endemic.”
WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis on Wednesday said authorities had received nearly 200 reports of sick or dead birds since announcing the first case on Friday.
So far, samples from 24 birds have been sent for testing.
