Aborigines in Australia's remote north and authorities in Indonesia and East Timor have been drafted in to watch for signs of sick or dead migratory birds as Australia's frontline defence against bird flu.
CANBERRA — Aborigines in Australia's remote north and authorities in Indonesia and East Timor have been drafted in to watch for signs of sick or dead migratory birds as Australia's frontline defence against bird flu.
Australian Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran, however, played down the chances of bird flu reaching Australia by migrating birds, as the water fowl most likely to carry the disease did not generally migrate to Australia from Asia.
"We've worked with indigenous communities spread throughout northern Australia to try and detect signs of sick birds," McGauran told reporters on Tuesday at the beginning of a national simulated bird-flu exercise.
Australia has not recorded any cases of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has killed 68 people in Asia since late 2003. But Australia has recorded five cases of the H7 influenza subtype in poultry since 1975.
McGauran said the kinds of birds likely to migrate to Australia were shorebirds, or waders, which were less likely to be a bird-flu threat than migrating water fowl, such as geese, swans and ducks.
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More than one million shorebirds and 34 species, such as the Great Knot and Eastern curlew, are regular visitors to Australia from China, Mongolia, Siberia and Alaska during the northern winter. They can fly 7,000 kilometres (4,350 miles) at a time.
Shearwaters, such as muttonbirds and petrels, also travel as far as Siberia, Japan and South America to stock up on food, before migrating south to Australian waters and breeding grounds to escape the northern winter.
McGauran said national parks officers, local government officials and vets in Australia's far north, as well as people on the ground in neighbouring East Timor and eastern Indonesia were also closely monitoring migratory flocks for signs of illness.
"But remember, water fowl don't migrate to Australia. Because the migratory birds are shorebirds, there's less likelihood of introduction by way of migratory birds," he said.
Australia started a simulated bird flu outbreak on Tuesday, involving up to 1,000 people in 19 towns and cities across the country, to test the ability of agriculture and health authorities to respond to an outbreak.
Observers from Britain, New Zealand and the World Organisation for Animal Health will monitor the exercise, which will not involve any field operations or isolation of any farms.
Health Minister Tony Abbott said he planned to hold a wider health exercise in the second half of 2006 to test Australia's readiness to deal with a possible avian-flu pandemic.
Australia has a national emergency plan in the event of a bird flu pandemic, which would see tight border screening, hospitals cancelling elective surgery, discharging less serious patients and recalling medical staff on leave.
Australia's chicken meat industry turns over A$3.6 billion ($2.7 billion) a year and employs 40,000 people.
Source: Reuters
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