Australia hit with ‘unprecedented’ triple strain bird flu outbreak, fears for more

Australia is currently suffering through an “unprecedented” triple strain outbreak of bird flu, with government, agricultural authorities and industry bodies preparing for the potential arrival of the dangerous H5N1 strain devastating the Northern Hemisphere.

As it stands, Australia is the only continent, including Antarctica, that has yet to detect the highly-pathogenic H5N1 strain, which has spread to livestock and mammals like sea lions in Argentina.

However three other strains of the highly-pathogenic avian flu have been detected at poultry farms and eggs farms across Victoria, NSW and the ACT.

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO) Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness director Debbie Eagles said the likelihood of the H5N1 virus spreading to Australia was considered to be “much higher” than previous avian flu outbreaks due to the large number of birds currently infected globally.

“The likelihood is considered increased, as opposed to previous years with other circulating viruses internationally but the virus has also been circulating globally in a range of regions since 2021,” she said on Monday.

“We are certainly being getting very well prepared across industry and governments for the fact that the potential has increased.

Stake holders are also preparing for the likelihood of other mammals, like sea lions, becoming sick from the virus, said Dr Eagles.

“That’s one of the real differences for this virus and that preparedness has to be across the agricultural industry, but also across environment and health as well, and certainly we’re seeing those preparedness discussions and plans being worked on,” she said.

While Australia doesn’t currently vaccinate poultry against avian influenza, Dr Eagles said discussions will be ongoing as authorities prepares for potential transmission.

Dr Wong said while Australia was slightly protected against the spread of the virus when water fowl, like ducks and geese, migrate south to Indonesia during the Spring, there may be risks associated with “regional nomadic duck species”.

“Given that the viruses already in our region we don’t have to rely on those long distance migrating species but on what we call the bridging species that might be infected and then kind of hop from island to island,” he said.

Looking at the current H5 and H7 outbreaks across NSW, Victoria and ACT, Dr Eagles said Australia had a “very well-developed response plan,” which involved industry and state governments.

The outbreaks have led to the culling of hundreds or thousands of birds, with major supermarkets Coles and Woolworths also placing purchase limits on eggs in all states except WA.

Frank Wong a senior research scientist at the centre and a World Organisation for Animal Health expert for avian influenza also allayed concerns around the transfer of the virus from humans and said current cases have been linked to people dealing with the outbreak.

The human infections have also been “very mild,” which Dr Wong said highlights the virus is “not very adapted to infection in mammals and humans”.

“The virus is still not adapted to infection in humans, so all the infections have been from close contact with infected birds or livestock,” he said.

“That’s because during an outbreak … there’s a lot of virus in the environment.”