This week, Australia confirmed local transmission among a population of great crested terns in South Australia.
“This is kind of the pattern that we expect with this disease,” Van Andel told MPs, and it was only a matter of time before pelagic seabirds moving through the Southern Ocean brought the virus to New Zealand.
Deputy director-general of Biosecurity New Zealand Stewart Anderson told the committee that New Zealand’s trade status remains unaffected, but that ultimately H5N1 is a disease the country is likely to have to live with.
“It seems very unlikely that this disease will be able to be eradicated from New Zealand wildlife. That’s not what has happened in any other place in the world.
“So we need to focus our efforts on resilience and on protecting the populations that we are able to, because we can’t predict or know how this disease will behave here.”
Given that the primary production committee has a heavy agricultural focus, questions arose about the potential economic challenges the virus could pose if the virus spreads further.
With mortality rates approaching around 90-95% in some affected species, National MP Suze Redmayne asked whether compensation would be on the cards for poultry farmers, citing the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak as a potential model.
Anderson told Redmayne that was unlikely. “The industry is going to need to live and manage with this, because it’ll become an endemic disease, meaning it can’t be eradicated. We won’t be seeking to exercise powers under the Biosecurity Act to undertake culling and so on, which means that compensation is not payable.”
As the situation is evolving and with officials continuing to monitor for any increase in local transmission, the primary production committee agreed it was likely MPI officials would need to return to Parliament for further updates.