[Nhcoll-l] HPAI in Australia

[Ellen Paul]

No word yet from APHIS; it took them about 3 months to react to the 
outbreak in Mexico. Though that was complicated because of the hunting 
situation. My guess is that we will see Australia added to the APHIS 
HPAI list very quickly.

-- 
Ellen Paul
Executive Director
The Ornithological Council
Email: ellen.paul at verizon.net
"Providing Scientific Information about Birds"
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET"




SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's first outbreak of a highly pathogenic bird flu virus in 15 years should be contained by a cull of 50,000 chickens, authorities said on Friday, although they do not know what caused the case at an egg farm in New South Wales state.

The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) said all chickens at the property in Maitland, 160 km (100 miles) north of Sydney, will be destroyed after the H7 virus was detected last week.
The H7 strain is highly pathogenic to birds but is not related to the H5N1 strain, which was first detected in 1997 in Hong Kong and has since caused hundreds of human deaths.

DPI Chief Veterinary Officer Ian Roth said the strain did not present any risks to food safety from poultry and eggs.

The owners of the infected farm have been quarantined as experts try to find the source of the virus, often wild birds.

"It generally spreads by the movement of birds from the farm and there certainly hasn't been any of those," Roth told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

"We're in the process now of doing the tracing and also surveillance in the area, and so far the tracing looks quite good. There hasn't been much potential for spread," he said.

Australia's agriculture ministry reported the outbreak to the Paris-based animal health body OIE on Thursday.