Another H5 bird flu case has been confirmed off WA\u2019s coast after a migratory bird was found dead near Esperance on the State\u2019s south west coast.<\/p>\n
It was one of five deceased petrels found by a member of the public on Roses Beach, 30km west of the town, with samples from the four other birds returning a negative result.<\/p>\n
Federal Agricultural Minister Julie Collins confirmed the case on Tuesday, saying it now marked the fifth case in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cFour of these detections were from sea birds found in Western Australia, and the one sea bird that was found in South Australia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of this afternoon, there remains no new suspected positives in state testing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Collins also confirmed that a suspected case in Victoria had returned a negative result.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere remains no evidence of any mass mortalities involved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no evidence currently of infection in our poultry or agriculture systems, and there remains a low risk of human health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two of WA\u2019s previously confirmed cases were found near Esperance \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
The State\u2019s third case was another petrel detected at Quindalup in the South West.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s chief veterinary officer Beth Cookson said almost 100 negative tests had been reported nationally since the first brown skua case was confirmed.<\/p>\n
She urged Australians who come across dead or sick wildlife to avoid contact with the animal, report it and collect evidence like photos and videos.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do want to thank the members of the public for their assistance in reporting sick or dead wildlife. This is a sign of our strong biosecurity system working,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After multiple detections near Esperance, a patrol vessel owned by the State\u2019s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development has been deployed to conduct surveillance along the coastline.<\/p>\n
The vessel\u2019s crew will observe wildlife colonies for any signs of ill health and death.<\/p>\n
They will also monitor if there are unusually low numbers of species that would normally populate the islands in the Recherche Archipelago during winter months.<\/p>\n
Shadow Agriculture Minister Darren Chester said he was \u201cconfident\u201d that Australia was prepared to respond to the bird flu detections but warned \u201cwe have to prepare for the worst\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we are hoping for the best but we have to prepare for the worst, this strain of bird flu has been devastating in other continents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re confident that the processes are in place in partnership with local and state governments, and the reporting mechanisms are there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d encourage the public to make sure, if you do come across a bird in the wild, which is unwell, not to touch the bird, to contact local authorities and allow the testing to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Chester also urged Australians to keep buying poultry products, assuring them the virus has only been found in migratory birds and has not impacted the commercial farming industry.<\/p>\n
National Farmers Federation\u2019s Warwick Ragg said the industry was being thoroughly briefed but did not downplay the seriousness of the threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a significant issue of significant concern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are substantial responses in place but let\u2019s not lose sight of this. This is migratory birds.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t stop migratory birds, migrating. We need to manage it as best we can as they come to our shores.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another H5 bird flu case has been confirmed off WA\u2019s coast after a migratory bird was found dead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,63739,63740,137,44,1836,45],"class_list":["post-769226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-countryman","tag-countryman-news","tag-health","tag-news","tag-public-health","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}