Queensland authorities say they believe a suspected positive case of H5 bird flu has been detected in the state.
Samples from a migratory bird found washed up on Moreton Island have been sent to a CSIRO lab for confirmation.
Queensland Minister for Primary Industries Tony Perrett said a deceased petrel was found by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service staff on Saturday, July 18.
“We are prepared for this, there has been constant communication federally with respect to this,” he said.
Mr Perrett said there had been 17 positive cases detected across Australia so far, the majority of which have been in Western Australia.
Queensland chief veterinary officer Allison Crook said it is a “similar scenario” to other cases around Australia.
Queensland chief veterinary officer Allison Cook said authorities have moved into “full stand-up” mode. (ABC News)
“It is very important for me to state that there has been no detection of H5 bird flu in poultry in Australia.”
Ms Crook said the Department of Primary Industries had moved into a “full stand-up” after the detection.
She added authorities had received more than 1,000 reports from the public about suspected bird flu cases.
“A significant part of our surveillance is community reporting … and I thank the community for their vigilance.”
Ms Crook said a suspect positive case means the bird has tested positive for H5 bird flu at the Queensland government biosecurity laboratory, but national protocol requires the sample to be sent to the Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong, Victoria.
Confirmation is expected “in the coming days”, Ms Crook said.
Mr Perrett said in a statement that the risk to human health remains unchanged.
“It is safe to continue to eat chicken meat or eggs, and I would encourage Queenslanders to purchase these products as they normally would.”
Ms Crook said poultry farmers and the poultry industry had been notified and are “well prepared”.
“They know what they need to do for their biosecurity and they are doing it.”
Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said the government was working with the poultry industry to prepare against bird flu.
Federal Minister for Agriculture Julie Collins said the government had “invested early” to tackle bird flu, but noted the H5 strain was “very virulent” and “highly contagious”.
“We’ve been working with the [poultry] industry in terms of their resilience, their redundancy, investing in their biosecurity systems and being as strong as they can be, particularly about how this may get into the system,” Minister Collins said.
“We’ve had two outbreaks of the H7 bird flu virus in Australia in the last five years or so, and we’ve been able to successfully eradicate those by working with industry and governments, state and federal.”
Invasive Species Council policy director Dr Carol Booth said the discovery should concern “every Australian who cares about our wildlife”.
“Australia has invested heavily in surveillance and early detection, and that preparation is working. But finding cases is only the first step,” she said.
“We can’t stop this virus, but we can boost the capacity of wildlife to survive and recover from outbreaks.”
BirdLife Australia president Hugh Possingham is calling on the government to invest more to protect native species. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)
University of Queensland academic and former Queensland Chief Scientist, Professor Hugh Possingham, said the arrival of bird flu was “significant, but not unexpected”.
“We really need to move hard on targeted surveillance, and also to take actions to secure some of the populations of our more threatened native birds,” he said.
Professor Possingham, president of BirdLife Australia, called on the federal government to invest an additional $200 million to help build resilience in species that could be impacted by the disease.
“If they’re going to decline by 30 or 40 per cent, we need to do everything else we can to protect them.”
