Birds infected with a deadly type of bird flu have been found in Western Australia. Where else could birds carrying the virus land?<\/p>\n
Ms Scriven and the Primary Industries and Regions Department was facing the prospect of a bird flu outbreak after spending the past 18 months dealing with the state’s harmful algal bloom.<\/p>\n
But she said the opportunity to prepare for bird flu had made for a different style of response.<\/p>\n
“[The bloom] was unprecedented; no-one could anticipate that it was going to be coming,” she said.<\/p>\n
SA has so far recorded one confirmed case of H5 bird flu, after a giant petrel found on the Fleurieu Peninsula last month tested positive.<\/p>\n
Four confirmed cases have been found in WA and, on Friday, the WA and NSW governments each reported an additional suspected case.<\/p>\n
All Australian detections have involved migratory seabirds, and there is no evidence the disease has spread into the poultry industry.<\/p>\n
Support on the table<\/p>\n
If the disease is found within a poultry facility in SA, Ms Scriven vowed that swift action would be taken to contain the spread.<\/p>\n
“It would mean euthanasing all the birds that were within the range that could have been affected,” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"SA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cdd8fdfc29bb01211241d5c73a38cbe3.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Clare Scriven says there are funding plans in place. (ABC News: Trent Murphy)<\/p>\n
Depending on the circumstances, restrictions would also be placed on the movement of birds between facilities.<\/p>\n
Asked about the possibility of financial support for affected farmers, Ms Scriven said there were already funding plans in place should the need arise.<\/p>\n
“There are national cost-sharing arrangements that kick in,” she said.<\/p>\n
“That’s part of the national agreements we have around things like biosecurity \u2014 all of those are already established in place.”<\/p>\n
‘Can’t prevent’ infections<\/p>\n
The protection of endangered species also formed part of the government’s preparation effort.<\/p>\n
“We know that we can’t prevent them, necessarily, getting bird flu,” Ms Scriven said.<\/p>\n
“But what we can do, for example with the seals and the seal pups, is increase their resilience more generally.”What to do if you see sick or dead birds?Do not touch sick or dead birds or animals.Record details and take photos or video.Report the animal to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.<\/p>\n
Measures have included management of feral pests to boost populations of certain species.<\/p>\n
Vaccines against the H5 bird flu strain have been developed, but Ms Scriven said they were not appropriate for use “across the board”.<\/p>\n
Vaccination also involved practical challenges, including a requirement that two doses were given to ensure effectiveness.<\/p>\n
“You can’t get a wild bird, vaccinate it today and then know that you’ll get that same wild bird in a couple of weeks’ time,” Ms Scriven said.<\/p>\n
But she said vaccines could be used to safeguard highly endangered species in settings such as zoos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australia’s primary industries minister says the arrival of bird flu on state shores is a “huge concern”,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[20233,64,63,359404,7248,234235,144,137,145],"class_list":["post-777356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-animal","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-avian","tag-bird","tag-clare-scriven","tag-flu","tag-health","tag-influenza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777356","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=777356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}