H5 Bird flu: NSW responding to suspected case after bird found in Hawksnest

Another state has a suspected positive case of H5 bird flu.

The New South Wales government announced on Friday morning that they are responding to the suspected case from a sample of a giant petrel.

The wild, migratory sea bird was found in Hawksnest, north of Newcastle.

This would be the sixth case of bird flu recorded in Australia and would mark the first in New South Wales.

Four have been recorded in Western Australia and one in South Australia.

Prior to this, Australia was the only continent in the world free of the highly contagious pathogen.

On Friday morning, the state’s Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty made the announcement.

“Unfortunately we have found a suspected case of H5,” she said.

“It is a suspected case at the moment ... the bird has tested positive for the H5 strain of the virus.

“We don’t know yet if it is the worst strain.”

The sample has now been sent to CSIRO’s national lab in Geelong for official confirmation and those tests are now underway to determine the type of H5.

Results should be received at some stage tomorrow.

Ms Moriarty said it was believed that the bird had come to New South Wales from elsewhere in the world.

“A member of the public identified it as looking ill,” she said, adding that the bird was reported through the emergency hotline established for the H5 outbreak.

The H5N1 strain has decimated wildlife overseas and is linked to the recent deaths of 13,000 baby seals in Antarctica – about 75 per cent of the population – as well as millions of birds around the world.

Ms Moriarty said that while there were no other positive birds, surveillance was being turned up across New South Wales and would continue across the weekend.

The poultry industry has not yet been impacted, but she said they were “ready”, encouraging everyone to “keep buying eggs”.

“Please don’t panic buy,” she said.

“I understand that this is going to have some concern for the community... but it’s not impacting industry at this point.”

Ms Moriarty was joined by the state’s chief veterinary officer Jo Coombes, who said petrel birds don’t typically make land unless they are sick.

“We have been preparing for this event for several years,” she said.

“In fact, since we had our H7 outbreak two years ago.

“We were all very aware that this was looming.”

Ms Coombes said that it was “always a risk” for the birds to land in Australia.

Earlier this week, Federal Agricultural Minister Julie Collins confirmed the fifth case after a migratory bird was found dead near Esperance in WA.

“Four of these detections were from sea birds found in Western Australia, and the one sea bird that was found in South Australia,” she said on Tuesday.

“As of this afternoon, there remains no new suspected positives in state testing.”

Ms Collins also confirmed that a suspected case in Victoria had returned a negative result.

“There remains no evidence of any mass mortalities involved,” she said.

“There is no evidence currently of infection in our poultry or agriculture systems, and there remains a low risk of human health.”

Two of WA’s previously confirmed cases were found near Esperance — a wild brown skua first found sick in an isolated area of Cape Le Grand National Park on June 14, and a giant petrel found in the same area less than a fortnight later.

The State’s third case was another petrel detected at Quindalup in the South West.

Australia’s chief veterinary officer, Beth Cookson, said almost 100 negative tests had been reported nationally since the first brown skua case was confirmed.

On Sunday, Environment Minister Murray Watt said any spread of H5 bird flu could have serious consequences for the economy.

“It’s pleasing that at this point in time we only have four confirmed cases and they’re all migratory birds that have flown in, most likely from islands below south of Australia,” he said.

“So it’s good that it hasn’t spread more widely than that.”

But Senator Watt warned any mass outbreak could devastate both Australia’s wildlife and its $8bn poultry industry.

“That would be very, very serious and damaging economically,” Senator Watt said.

“There’s no reports at all of any poultry in a commercial setting having bird flu, and we’d like to see it stay that way.”

He sought to reassure Australians by pointing out the country had “a couple years to get ready for this compared to other countries”.

“We’ve got very good preparedness plans in place that are already rolling out,” he said.