Karen Johns’ hobby is a bit more intensive than reading or painting. She breeds chickens.
Indian game and Pekin bantams are her pride and joy, and have been for more than 30 years.
She is not a commercial breeder or a farmer, but her flock at her home in Stanthorpe in southern Queensland consists of about 100 birds.
For breeders like Ms Johns, an avian influenza outbreak in Queensland would be devastating.
“There are some breeders who have been doing this for years and years, I don’t know how they’d handle having to lose all their flock,” she said.
Karen Johns has been breeds a variety of chickens. (Supplied: Karen Johns)
In the event of an outbreak, infected flocks are euthanased to prevent the disease spreading.
Ms Johns said an outbreak would destroy genetic diversity that had taken decades of hard work to achieve.
“There’s so much history. We have our own breeds and some of those breeds take a year to fully develop,” she said.
While authorities are responding to outbreaks of avian influenza in southern states, there are fears a more deadly strain of the H5N1 virus could reach Australian borders as birds migrate this spring.
Queensland is under siege on other fronts, battling its own invasive fire ant outbreak in the south-east.
Varroa destructor mite was also detected in bee hives in Victoria this month and now a new tomato virus has been found in South Australia.
Biosecurity is often thought of as an issue primarily relevant to farmers.
However, a pest or disease outbreak could also impact the environment as well as human and animal health, according to Queensland’s chief biosecurity officer Rachel Chay.
Karen Johns’ tagging system for her chicken flock. (Supplied: Karen Johns)
Backyard biosecurity
Under Queensland’s Biosecurity Act, every Queenslander has a legislative obligation to ensure they do not spread pests or diseases and to manage biosecurity risks under their control.
This includes in their own backyard.
“Queensland operates under the guise of shared responsibility across the 1.8 million square kilometres,” Dr Chay said.
“That pretty much means that across Queensland we’ve got millions of biosecurity officers-slash-detectives.”
Not complying with the general biosecurity obligation is an offence.
A biosecurity officer can issue an order requiring specific action to be taken within a certain time frame and fines can also be issued for non-compliance.
Ms Johns takes her biosecurity responsibilities seriously.
At her property, she tags her birds to keep records of them and their familial lines.
“I wing tag with a little plastic tag that’s similar to the ear tags but a lot smaller,” she said.
It is an expensive and time-consuming process, according to Ms Johns, costing $3 for each tag.
While registering backyard chickens could be on the table in Victoria, Dr Chay confirmed it was not yet being considered in Queensland.
The tags are put on the wings of the chickens. (Supplied: Karen Johns)
All reports welcomed
Dr Chay said due to the COVID-19 pandemic and fire ant infestations in south-east Queensland, biosecurity awareness was growing outside rural and regional areas.
She said community engagement was built into all of her organisation’s programs, with funding spent on social media campaigns, printed materials, online education, community workshops and participating in local agricultural shows.
“Public campaigns are critical to the success of biosecurity in Queensland,” Dr Chay said.
“The more eyes on the ground we’ve got in biosecurity the better.”
Queensland is battling the incursion of fire ants in the south-east. (Supplied: Georgia Tech Ant Lab, David Hu and Nathan Mlot)
And she said it was working, with Biosecurity Queensland receiving thousands of reports each year.
“In the fire ant program some of our key detections have been from really observant members of the public,” she said.
Dr Chay said they welcomed all reports, including ones that did not pan out.
“We have multiple examples of false reports, which is [still] awesome as people are engaging,” she said.
“They’re observing things that don’t look quite right, sending through photos to our research and our technical team.”
Tight partnerships
Hobby groups can be another vital link to spread biosecurity education to the wider public.
For beekeepers the major threat is varroa mite, a deadly bee parasite that has been causing major devastation to the NSW industry and has now been detected in Victoria.
Even hobbyists are being urged to regularly check their hives for the pest.
Varroa destructor mite has not been detected in Queensland. (Supplied: Gilles San Martin)
Amateur beekeepers have a direct link to industry and best practice because the Queensland Beekeepers Association (QBA) represents both commercial and hobby apiarists.
Secretary Jo Martin said good biosecurity practices were vital for everyone.
“You may well be the difference between detecting a new exotic threat early or us not catching it until it’s far too late, when it has devastating consequences to food security,” she said.
Beekeepers in Queensland are being urged to regularly check their hives for the varroa destructor mite. (ABC Central West: Tim Fookes)
QBA offers their members online and in-person resources and training.
The association partnered with the state government to create the Bee 123 program, giving Queensland beekeepers a place to report each time they complete a hive check for the pest regardless if they find a mite or not.
All biosecurity concerns can be reported online on the Biosecurity Queensland website or by calling 13 25 23. For national disease reporting, the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline is 1800 675 888.
