Avian flu H5 variant detected in Western Australia, first time in Australia

The deadly H5 variant of avian influenza has been detected in a bird that washed up on a remote beach in Western Australia's south, the first time the disease has been found in Australia.

On Saturday federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said further testing had confirmed the bird had the H5 strain, after a suspected positive result for avian influenza was returned on Friday.

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One confirmed case of H5 high pathogenic avian influenza

Federal Agriculture Minsiter Julie Collins has confirmed H5 bird flu in a Brown Skua in Western Australia to a press conference in Canberra.

"This is a type of migratory seabird," she told a press conference.

"It was found sick on an isolated area near Esperance in Western Australia.

"As I said, this is the highly pathogenic strain of concern that has been circulating globally and this is its first detection on mainland Australia."

The samples from another sick bird, a giant petrel, have now been tested at Western Australia's laboratory and has also returned a suspected positive result for the H5 influenza.

These samples will now also be sent to CSIRO's laboratory for confirmatory testing.

The brown skua bird was found on a remote beach at the Cape Le Grand National Park near Esperance, about 700 kilometres south-east of Perth. The bird was isolated after it was found on Sunday and died that night.

The result means the virus, which has infected millions of birds worldwide, has finally spread to every continent on the planet.

Australia has spent years preparing for an H5 bird flu incursion, committing $95 million in biosecurity, environmental and public health funding last October and a further $11.2 million less than 24 hours before news of the infected bird was announced on Friday.

It comes as the nation's poultry industry recovers from Australia's largest outbreak of the H7 variant of the disease that left egg shelves in shops bare for almost a year.

More than two million laying hens were killed during the outbreak in line with biosecurity requirements.

Are we prepared?

Australia has been preparing for an incursion of H5N1 with government-run "war-game" crisis scenarios.

Hundreds of people working in industries such as emergency services, supermarkets, health, telecommunications, animal welfare, transport and logistics run annual exercises to train for the response to and recovery from extreme to catastrophic disasters.

Joe Buffone, deputy coordinator-general with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said while the scenarios were hypothetical, they were based on the worst-case reality of an outbreak.

"We've had [real life] examples with the H7 variant of bird flu impacting the poultry industry," he said.

"That then impacts the egg industry, that impacts on providing people affordable protein — so there are direct correlations there [between departments].

"It brings all the agencies together, the human health element, the animal element and biosecurity all coming together and connecting into the broader emergency management arrangements.

"The prevention and surveillance work, the communication … there's a big effort going into understanding the risk, and if there is an incursion Australia is well placed to respond quickly."

Protecting WA's poultry industry

Western Australia's Chief Veterinary Officer Michelle Rodan said the main focus was to protect the poultry industry, as well as checking if the virus had spread.

"We will be doing surveillance across the coast of Australia, not just here, to make sure that there's no other detections across Australia," she said.

Authorities had extensively engaged with the poultry industry in preparation, Dr Rodan said, with key measures including farmers managing the water and feed birds had access to.

"Obviously our free-range industry has trouble with that, and hence a possibility of putting housing orders in place to allow them to do that," Dr Rodan added.

Housing orders would require animals to be kept indoors to prevent further spread.

State Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis said the sick bird was found "a long way from commercial poultry producers".

"The biggest risk to poultry is from wild birds coming into contact with them, so obviously making sure birds are housed rather than in the open," she said.

Protocols in place

Albany Poultry Club secretary Sharon Cliff said the prospect of flocks becoming infected was "quite scary" for breeders, but many already had protocols in place.

"I love my birds, but to have the stress of potentially getting them sick … if they ended up with the strain here, that would be the end of it," she said.

"We've just got to keep prepared, look after the health of our birds, quarantine everything."

But she said any new biosecurity controls could significantly impact the club.

"The movement of birds will be lessened or stopped, and as a club, that is how we function, the selling and breeding of birds and eggs," she said.

Wildlife carers prepared

Esperance Wildlife Hospital Carer Lori-Ann Shibish said wildlife workers in the region had received extensive training on how to handle birds that may be sick or that could be possible carriers of the virus.

"We have been very fortunate to have the support of DPIRD and Murdoch University," she said.

A second bird, a giant northern petrel, was found exhausted on an Esperance beach and unable to stand on Thursday.

It is being cared for by the Esperance Wildlife Hospital and is in quarantine.