New South Wales has its first suspected case of the deadly H5 bird flu in a giant petrel that was found near Hawks Nest, north of Newcastle, on the state\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n
If CSIRO testing confirms it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, it would mark the first detection of the deadly disease on the Australian east coast.<\/p>\n
Five cases have already been confirmed since late June \u2013 four in Western Australia and one in South Australia \u2013 all in migratory sub-antarctic birds.<\/p>\n
The NSW agriculture minister, Tara Moriarty, said the disease had so far not been detected in any poultry flocks, captive or other wild birds in NSW. The bird was found unwell by a member of the public who contacted authorities.<\/p>\n
She said initial testing at NSW labs had confirmed the petrel was positive for H5 influenza. Testing by the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness was needed to confirm it was the highly pathogenic strain of the disease that has devastated wildlife populations globally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis latest development is incredibly concerning for both agriculture and for wildlife,\u201d Moriarty said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact of H5 worldwide on wild birds and poultry has been devastating. But NSW and the rest of the country have been preparing for this moment for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New South Wales government said last week it had surveillance in place for early detection following the arrival of deadly H5 bird flu in other parts of the country.<\/p>\n
Moriarty said NSW was working with the federal and other state and territory governments. A state coordination centre at the Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development in Orange was managing surveillance operations.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
She urged anyone who saw a sick or dead bird to contact the emergency hotline and report its location.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no other birds that have been found to be positive for H5 at the moment, but we are now increasing our surveillance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The minister said the government had trained more than 500 people in government and private veterinary services in surveillance for the disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they\u2019re checking this area of the state, around Hawks Nest and the mid-north coast and other high-risk parts of the state, looking for birds,\u201d Moriarty said on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat includes fisheries officers, people in national parks, people in agriculture \u2013 looking for birds that might look ill, so that we can see if there are any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NSW chief veterinary officer, Dr Jo Coombe, said \u201cthis is an isolated case at this stage\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s going to be the last case, but at this point there is no evidence of spread to any wild birds,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Coombe said symptoms of deadly H5 bird flu included lethargy, respiratory signs such as watery eyes or difficulty breathing, and paralysis or difficulty walking.<\/p>\n
She warned people to avoid contact with sick or dead birds and requested they record the location and report it to authorities.<\/p>\n
The Invasive Species Council renewed its call for an urgent $200m in federal funding for conservation measures to support the bird flu response by reducing other threats to wild species.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best defence we have is to make Australia\u2019s wildlife as resilient as possible before widespread outbreaks occur. That means rebuilding healthy populations that are better able to withstand disease and recover afterwards,\u201d the council\u2019s policy director, Carol Booth, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New South Wales has its first suspected case of the deadly H5 bird flu in a giant petrel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-740108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}