Bird flu health warning: Government to spend $95 million with latest strain to bring 'genuine risks to people’

Australians are being urged not to become complacent with a deadly strain of bird flu, as the virus poses “genuine risks” to people.

As the nation braces for the arrival of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, the Albanese government will spend $95 million in preparation.

The strain has caused respiratory illness, reduced egg production and spelt sudden death among wild birds and some mammal species in other countries.

It is different to the strain that led to egg shortages in Australian supermarkets earlier this year.

Despite Australia being the only continent without H5N, chief medical officer Paul Kelly has warned it’s only a matter of time.

James Trezise, director of the Biodiversity Council, said the most pressing impact was on birds and mammals, but the flu presented “genuine risks to people”.

“What’s important is that people follow the guidelines around that have been developed by Wildlife Health Australia about what to do if they encounter dead or large numbers of dead birds that might be impacted by avian influenza,” he said.

“It’s really, really important that we don’t take it for granted, that it’s just isolated to birds, but we follow the guidelines to make sure that people don’t inadvertently contract or spread H5N1.”

Mr Trezise said it was “no overstatement” the strain of bird flu could be an extinction level event for a number of Australian wildlife.

“We’ve seen it basically collapse bird and mammal populations overseas,” he said.

“If it arrives into small, isolated populations, and we’ve got a number of small, isolated populations of birds ... it could just collapse the entire population and send that species extinct.”

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek confirmed about 500 bird species and 80 mammal species had been affected by the bird flu strain.