Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Doorstop in Sydney
29 July 2026
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
SYDNEY
WEDNESDAY, 29 JULY 2026
SUBJECTS: H5 bird flu
JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: I am here with the Australian Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Beth Cookson, and have just received a briefing on Australia’s bird flu response. As you would be aware, we do have 11 further greater crested terns from South Australia that have returned suspect positives for the H5N1 virus following testing at their state laboratory, and these have now been sent to the CSIRO lab for confirmatory testing. This follows 27 confirmed detections of H5 bird flu in Australia to date. There is 10 currently in Western Australia, 14 in South Australia, two in New South Wales, and one in Queensland. I can advise that today the Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Diseases, met and has agreed, based on testing and sequencing by the CSIRO lab, that some local transmission has occurred between a number of greater crested terns that are resident in South Australia. While there remains no evidence of any mass mortalities at this point in time, we do expect with this local transmission that there will be further detections in Australian wildlife. States and territories will continue to undertake activities on the ground, particularly, through shared costs, to manage the impact of the H5 bird flu. We have been working with states and territories all the way along, and with industry and with wildlife experts. And as people would be aware, we have invested over $113 million now in preparing for this. We have also, working with states and territories, now released a further $24 million together with the states and territories. I do want to reiterate at this point in time there has been no detections in any poultry or agricultural industries in Australia and that the risk to human health remains low. I do want to again thank Australians for the reporting in relation to dead birds or sick birds over recent weeks. We do ask people to continue to keep up to date with the situation at birdflu.gov.au and to remember to not touch dead birds, to report and record, and go to birdflu.gov.au to report it. I'll now hand over to Australian Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Beth Cookson for an update.
DR BETH COOKSON, AUSTRALIAN CHIEF VETERINARY OFFICER: Thanks, Minister. And as the Minister mentioned this morning, I chaired the Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Diseases to consider the most recent H5 bird flu detections in South Australia, including results of the laboratory analysis undertaken at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness. We agreed that the evidence does suggest that some local transmission has now occurred between a number of greater crested terns that are resident in coastal locations in South Australia. This has been based on our consideration of the genetic sequencing, which shows that whilst all strains are still related to the sub-Antarctic strains, that the virus detected in these greater crested terns are closely related. It also does take into account the locations and species that have returned positive test results, as well as the 11 additional suspect cases in greater crested terns in South Australia that are subject to further confirmatory testing. Whilst this is a concerning development, it is not unexpected for us to start to see more local transmission in birds that share the same coastal habitat. This news of some local transmission may mean we start to see wider spread among wild birds and other susceptible wildlife. We do know from the overseas experience that once the virus becomes more widespread in wild bird populations, it will not be possible to avoid losses in susceptible wildlife in the natural environment. Our focus will continue to be on surveillance to confirm where the virus is circulating and to take further action to reduce the impacts where possible. We encourage the community to continue to avoid, record, and report when you see sick or dead birds to support this effort. Importantly, there have been no detections in poultry or the wider agricultural system, and the advice from the Australian Centre for Disease Control is that the risk to human health remains low. This small shift in the situation will be very disappointing to many, but it's certainly not an unexpected development. As the last continent to detect H5 bird flu, we have learnt from the experiences abroad and invested in our preparedness so that we are well positioned. We have well-developed emergency disease response arrangements in Australia that are already activated, and the detections to date have shown that that biosecurity system continues to work. I would like to take a moment to thank our partners across governments, industry and non-governmental organisations, producers and communities for their actions and response to date as we continue to work together and monitor the situation as it evolves.
JOURNALIST: Minister, is it inevitable that this strain will spread further given that there's local transmission?
COLLINS: We've seen it behave differently overseas in different areas. So, what we want to do is look at the evidence that is with us today, and that is that we have had what is suggestive of local transmission for the first time. Clearly, we will expect to see increased evidence and deaths of wildlife, and certainly we'll expect to see that, given there has been some local transmission. But it does behave differently, and once it becomes established, what we do know from overseas is that it is not able to be eradicated. So, what we will do is continue to monitor and evaluate and see where this disease is in Australia. And I'm happy for Dr Cookson to add if she's got anything further to add.
COOKSON: The assessment that there has been now local transmission, or suggestion of local transmission, between birds may indicate that we will continue to see spread. There are a range of birds that occupy those coastal habitats, and that will continue to be our focus: to undertake monitoring, to determine whether there has been any onward spread and whether there are any other species that become infected.
JOURNALIST: Is there anything actually, on a practical level, you can do to mitigate the risk to other wildlife in the area? I mean, surely they're just wild animals, so they actually can't be controlled, or, it's sort of beyond your control, isn't it?
COOKSON: We know from the overseas experience that certainly within the natural environment in the wild, that there is limited feasible and practical actions to control or contain the spread. Indeed,the arrival in Australia through migratory birds was something that we had anticipated for a number of years and was the reason for a significant investment in preparedness. That preparedness has allowed us to detect the virus early and to have very well-enhanced surveillance activities underway. It's also allowed for a number of actions in high-priority conservation species, including site- and species-specific planning, to look at ways that impacts can be limited. It has also invested in reducing other pressures to ensure healthy and resilient populations that are more able to withstand the impacts of a virus like H5 bird flu and other lines of effort around captive breeding populations. And there'll be a continued focus on protecting, from a conservation perspective, those captive breeding populations.
JOURNALIST: So, would that involve things like putting them into lockdown, for example, at Adelaide Zoo or animal sanctuaries? What do you mean when you say that?
COOKSON: There's been a range of actions already undertaken, including investment through the Australian Government, $113 million of preparedness activities, to work with those facility managers to put in place enhanced biosecurity measures. So, what that means is reducing the ability for contact between wild populations and captive populations. It looks at hygiene and how humans are moving in and out of those facilities to limit any contamination into those populations. So, that's the first line of defence, is really enhanced biosecurity, and that's certainly been a focus.
COLLINS: And certainly I was at Adelaide Zoo last week with their Environment Minister and with Minister Watt, and certainly I was able to see and talk to them about some of that investment already and what it has done in terms of making sure that they can separate some of their captive birds from wildlife.
JOURNALIST: Now that we know that this spread has happened locally, does that kick up protections for the poultry industry to the next level? I mean, you know, is the poultry industry now being instructed or advised to do things that it wasn't, say, a week ago?
COLLINS: Well, we've certainly been working very closely with industry and obviously, as you would expect, we do have plans for this and for any step changes in terms of the response. You would be aware, and we've answered questions before in relation to what's known as housing orders, and that is in terms of bringing free-range hens in undercover. And certainly that would be a decision for states and territories based on the location, the amounts of infections in those areas and what the disease looks like on the ground in various locations across the country. I don't know if Dr Cookson would like to add anything to that?
COOKSON: That's right, Minister. We have done a lot of work on over the last few years with our poultry industries to make sure that their on-farm biosecurity planning is as robust as it can be and that there is protective measures as far as possible put in place to, again, limit contact between wild birds and poultry, but also to prevent contamination or the feeding of contaminated food or water sources, equipment, basic hygiene and husbandry practices to, as far as possible, prevent spillover. The consideration of enhanced biosecurity, including things like housing orders, will be based on risk-based assessments by the state and territory Chief Veterinary Officers as we understand the risk. Obviously, Australia is a very big country. We have detections in coastal locations in the south at the moment. So, it's really going to be important for us to continue to monitor that situation as it evolves to know where the virus might be present in wild animals.
JOURNALIST: At what point do you see the need for culling? Obviously there's no detection of poultry at the moment. But we may reach a point in the next few weeks or months where farmers are going to have to cull their poultry?
COLLINS: We certainly have been working with the poultry industry to reduce the risk of incursion into the poultry and agriculture systems, and I reiterate, there is no evidence of any incursion into our poultry or agricultural systems at this stage.
JOURNALIST: Are you expecting a high mortality rate, particularly on Kangaroo Island?
COLLINS: In terms of wildlife?
JOURNALIST: Yeah.
COLLINS: Obviously, you know, we'll continue to monitor these detections. We've been pretty clear that, you know, it would arrive by migratory birds. We've been pretty clear about how contagious this H5N1 is, and we've certainly been very clear with people that once we started to see local transmission that we would expect to see increased numbers of transmission. But, as Dr Cookson has pointed out, we have been working with local experts and non-government organisations as well as state and territory governments about how we can make sure that local populations are as robust as they possibly can be so that, should the H5 bird flu be an incursion in those areas, that they're more able to withstand that type of infection.
JOURNALIST: So, what's your advice to farmers now?
COLLINS: In terms of poultry farmers?
JOURNALIST: You said you are talking with them. But what's your advice to them at the moment?
COLLINS: Well, our advice is based on the evidence before us and the advice of the experts and the expert committees that Dr Cookson and her chief vets sit on, and they make those decisions based on the evidence. At this point in time, what they have said and what the advice is is that states and territories will make those decisions based on what is occurring in their local areas and the number of infections in their local areas and how close they are to poultry farms.
JOURNALIST: So, they should do nothing at this stage?
COLLINS: Well, that would be a decision by the various governments, the relevant state and territory governments. I don't know if Dr Cookson would like to add anything there.
COOKSON: It's always a good idea for poultry farmers or any bird keepers to review and make sure that they have got good biosecurity plans in place and that they are taking consideration of the types of actions that can prevent that exposure between wild birds and kept birds. There is some really good advice available on birdflu.gov.au. There's a range of resources that poultry producers and bird keepers can draw on which talks about the types of considerations around preventing that contact between wild birds and poultry, and, as I've mentioned, making sure that there's no contamination of food, water sources or equipment. So, there are a range of actions that can be taken now, and we would say that that's always a good thing to have in mind and to review those plans.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned before the genetic sequencing that's been carried out. I'm just wondering, does that shed any light on where exactly some of these birds have come from or how the virus is spreading offshore amongst them?
COOKSON: What I can say from the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness analysis is that we did see a change from the wild migratory birds, so, predominantly the petrels and the brown skua, that were the first detections in Australia, where the sequences were more closely aligned to those from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the sub-Antarctic. That was the pattern that we had continued to see until we saw the infections within the greater crested terns in South Australia. The most recent analysis of those 10 sequences now, that we've got from those greater crested terns, show that there was very small shifts in the sequences between those 10, so much smaller differences in the genetic sequences than the range that we saw from those previous incursions. And so what that tells us is that there is a suggestion of more localised transmission and more direct transmission occurring within that population. What it doesn't tell us is exactly where that transmission is occurring.
JOURNALIST: Just on that, are you able to map the transmission? Because if you recall initially that the first two birds were in WA and then there is local transmission in South Australia. So, are you expecting that transmission to spread from South Australia outwards, or would there be other pockets around?
COOKSON: I don't think that I can answer that directly. What we have got from the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness is what we call a phylogenetic tree, which lays out all of the sequences and how close they are to one another. Certainly the pattern that we saw was that there was a level of closeness to those sub-Antarctic strains previously, but the difference between them is getting smaller and smaller. So, we can't say exactly where the greater crested terns were infected, but what we can say is that the new sequencing result shows us that that transmission is much more direct and local than what we were seeing with the sub-Antarctic birds that were arriving previously.
JOURNALIST: Right. And so the terns where are they found? Are they just in South Australia?
COOKSON: The greater crested tern? I'm not an expert in greater crested terns. However, they do have a broad coastal range across many areas of Australia and indeed throughout the Indo-Pacific.
JOURNALIST: Do you know if there's any, the sequencing shows any link between the Australian and New Zealand detections? So, you know, could the New Zealand detections have come from birds via Australia or similarly just from an island?
COOKSON: I don't have that information. What I can say is that the range of detections that were occurring in those wild migratory species from Western Australia all the way through to the detection in Queensland all show the similar pattern of closeness to the sub-Antarctic strains.
JOURNALIST: Just on the advice to the public, you talk about reporting dead animals, but could you be more specific about that? I mean, where are these dead animals? Are they in urban areas or beaches? Because people are calling, I think there’s been 2,000 calls. Can you just be more specific about what dead animals are being reported?
COOKSON: The reporting of sick and dead wild birds and sea mammals is sort of where the focus has been to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline, has been a really important part and continues to be a really important part of our surveillance. So, what we are saying to the public is, where you see sick and dead animals, and particularly, I guess, growing in numbers, to report that to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline so it can be triaged by the experts. Those numbers are 24 hours, seven days a week numbers. There are experts that are able to identify where there might be a higher likelihood of there being a detection of bird flu, and they will make a decision about whether further investigation is required. Even in cases where it's not required, that information helps us to understand where the potential locations of spread may be.
COLLINS: I don’t what the number is but last time we had well over 8,000.
COOKSON: Yes the overall calls to the national hotline since the 20th of June there’s now been over 10,000. So there has been a really big public reach and it’s been really important for our ability to understand the situation as it stands at the moment.
COLLINS: Hundreds of tests have been done on birds and some of those mammals through that hotline and the hotline you can find at birdflu.gov.au as well as a lot of advice for people who may have any concerns or any questions.
https://minister.agriculture.gov.au...ranscripts/doorstop-sydney-bird-flu-south-aus
29 July 2026
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
SYDNEY
WEDNESDAY, 29 JULY 2026
SUBJECTS: H5 bird flu
JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: I am here with the Australian Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Beth Cookson, and have just received a briefing on Australia’s bird flu response. As you would be aware, we do have 11 further greater crested terns from South Australia that have returned suspect positives for the H5N1 virus following testing at their state laboratory, and these have now been sent to the CSIRO lab for confirmatory testing. This follows 27 confirmed detections of H5 bird flu in Australia to date. There is 10 currently in Western Australia, 14 in South Australia, two in New South Wales, and one in Queensland. I can advise that today the Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Diseases, met and has agreed, based on testing and sequencing by the CSIRO lab, that some local transmission has occurred between a number of greater crested terns that are resident in South Australia. While there remains no evidence of any mass mortalities at this point in time, we do expect with this local transmission that there will be further detections in Australian wildlife. States and territories will continue to undertake activities on the ground, particularly, through shared costs, to manage the impact of the H5 bird flu. We have been working with states and territories all the way along, and with industry and with wildlife experts. And as people would be aware, we have invested over $113 million now in preparing for this. We have also, working with states and territories, now released a further $24 million together with the states and territories. I do want to reiterate at this point in time there has been no detections in any poultry or agricultural industries in Australia and that the risk to human health remains low. I do want to again thank Australians for the reporting in relation to dead birds or sick birds over recent weeks. We do ask people to continue to keep up to date with the situation at birdflu.gov.au and to remember to not touch dead birds, to report and record, and go to birdflu.gov.au to report it. I'll now hand over to Australian Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Beth Cookson for an update.
DR BETH COOKSON, AUSTRALIAN CHIEF VETERINARY OFFICER: Thanks, Minister. And as the Minister mentioned this morning, I chaired the Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Diseases to consider the most recent H5 bird flu detections in South Australia, including results of the laboratory analysis undertaken at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness. We agreed that the evidence does suggest that some local transmission has now occurred between a number of greater crested terns that are resident in coastal locations in South Australia. This has been based on our consideration of the genetic sequencing, which shows that whilst all strains are still related to the sub-Antarctic strains, that the virus detected in these greater crested terns are closely related. It also does take into account the locations and species that have returned positive test results, as well as the 11 additional suspect cases in greater crested terns in South Australia that are subject to further confirmatory testing. Whilst this is a concerning development, it is not unexpected for us to start to see more local transmission in birds that share the same coastal habitat. This news of some local transmission may mean we start to see wider spread among wild birds and other susceptible wildlife. We do know from the overseas experience that once the virus becomes more widespread in wild bird populations, it will not be possible to avoid losses in susceptible wildlife in the natural environment. Our focus will continue to be on surveillance to confirm where the virus is circulating and to take further action to reduce the impacts where possible. We encourage the community to continue to avoid, record, and report when you see sick or dead birds to support this effort. Importantly, there have been no detections in poultry or the wider agricultural system, and the advice from the Australian Centre for Disease Control is that the risk to human health remains low. This small shift in the situation will be very disappointing to many, but it's certainly not an unexpected development. As the last continent to detect H5 bird flu, we have learnt from the experiences abroad and invested in our preparedness so that we are well positioned. We have well-developed emergency disease response arrangements in Australia that are already activated, and the detections to date have shown that that biosecurity system continues to work. I would like to take a moment to thank our partners across governments, industry and non-governmental organisations, producers and communities for their actions and response to date as we continue to work together and monitor the situation as it evolves.
JOURNALIST: Minister, is it inevitable that this strain will spread further given that there's local transmission?
COLLINS: We've seen it behave differently overseas in different areas. So, what we want to do is look at the evidence that is with us today, and that is that we have had what is suggestive of local transmission for the first time. Clearly, we will expect to see increased evidence and deaths of wildlife, and certainly we'll expect to see that, given there has been some local transmission. But it does behave differently, and once it becomes established, what we do know from overseas is that it is not able to be eradicated. So, what we will do is continue to monitor and evaluate and see where this disease is in Australia. And I'm happy for Dr Cookson to add if she's got anything further to add.
COOKSON: The assessment that there has been now local transmission, or suggestion of local transmission, between birds may indicate that we will continue to see spread. There are a range of birds that occupy those coastal habitats, and that will continue to be our focus: to undertake monitoring, to determine whether there has been any onward spread and whether there are any other species that become infected.
JOURNALIST: Is there anything actually, on a practical level, you can do to mitigate the risk to other wildlife in the area? I mean, surely they're just wild animals, so they actually can't be controlled, or, it's sort of beyond your control, isn't it?
COOKSON: We know from the overseas experience that certainly within the natural environment in the wild, that there is limited feasible and practical actions to control or contain the spread. Indeed,the arrival in Australia through migratory birds was something that we had anticipated for a number of years and was the reason for a significant investment in preparedness. That preparedness has allowed us to detect the virus early and to have very well-enhanced surveillance activities underway. It's also allowed for a number of actions in high-priority conservation species, including site- and species-specific planning, to look at ways that impacts can be limited. It has also invested in reducing other pressures to ensure healthy and resilient populations that are more able to withstand the impacts of a virus like H5 bird flu and other lines of effort around captive breeding populations. And there'll be a continued focus on protecting, from a conservation perspective, those captive breeding populations.
JOURNALIST: So, would that involve things like putting them into lockdown, for example, at Adelaide Zoo or animal sanctuaries? What do you mean when you say that?
COOKSON: There's been a range of actions already undertaken, including investment through the Australian Government, $113 million of preparedness activities, to work with those facility managers to put in place enhanced biosecurity measures. So, what that means is reducing the ability for contact between wild populations and captive populations. It looks at hygiene and how humans are moving in and out of those facilities to limit any contamination into those populations. So, that's the first line of defence, is really enhanced biosecurity, and that's certainly been a focus.
COLLINS: And certainly I was at Adelaide Zoo last week with their Environment Minister and with Minister Watt, and certainly I was able to see and talk to them about some of that investment already and what it has done in terms of making sure that they can separate some of their captive birds from wildlife.
JOURNALIST: Now that we know that this spread has happened locally, does that kick up protections for the poultry industry to the next level? I mean, you know, is the poultry industry now being instructed or advised to do things that it wasn't, say, a week ago?
COLLINS: Well, we've certainly been working very closely with industry and obviously, as you would expect, we do have plans for this and for any step changes in terms of the response. You would be aware, and we've answered questions before in relation to what's known as housing orders, and that is in terms of bringing free-range hens in undercover. And certainly that would be a decision for states and territories based on the location, the amounts of infections in those areas and what the disease looks like on the ground in various locations across the country. I don't know if Dr Cookson would like to add anything to that?
COOKSON: That's right, Minister. We have done a lot of work on over the last few years with our poultry industries to make sure that their on-farm biosecurity planning is as robust as it can be and that there is protective measures as far as possible put in place to, again, limit contact between wild birds and poultry, but also to prevent contamination or the feeding of contaminated food or water sources, equipment, basic hygiene and husbandry practices to, as far as possible, prevent spillover. The consideration of enhanced biosecurity, including things like housing orders, will be based on risk-based assessments by the state and territory Chief Veterinary Officers as we understand the risk. Obviously, Australia is a very big country. We have detections in coastal locations in the south at the moment. So, it's really going to be important for us to continue to monitor that situation as it evolves to know where the virus might be present in wild animals.
JOURNALIST: At what point do you see the need for culling? Obviously there's no detection of poultry at the moment. But we may reach a point in the next few weeks or months where farmers are going to have to cull their poultry?
COLLINS: We certainly have been working with the poultry industry to reduce the risk of incursion into the poultry and agriculture systems, and I reiterate, there is no evidence of any incursion into our poultry or agricultural systems at this stage.
JOURNALIST: Are you expecting a high mortality rate, particularly on Kangaroo Island?
COLLINS: In terms of wildlife?
JOURNALIST: Yeah.
COLLINS: Obviously, you know, we'll continue to monitor these detections. We've been pretty clear that, you know, it would arrive by migratory birds. We've been pretty clear about how contagious this H5N1 is, and we've certainly been very clear with people that once we started to see local transmission that we would expect to see increased numbers of transmission. But, as Dr Cookson has pointed out, we have been working with local experts and non-government organisations as well as state and territory governments about how we can make sure that local populations are as robust as they possibly can be so that, should the H5 bird flu be an incursion in those areas, that they're more able to withstand that type of infection.
JOURNALIST: So, what's your advice to farmers now?
COLLINS: In terms of poultry farmers?
JOURNALIST: You said you are talking with them. But what's your advice to them at the moment?
COLLINS: Well, our advice is based on the evidence before us and the advice of the experts and the expert committees that Dr Cookson and her chief vets sit on, and they make those decisions based on the evidence. At this point in time, what they have said and what the advice is is that states and territories will make those decisions based on what is occurring in their local areas and the number of infections in their local areas and how close they are to poultry farms.
JOURNALIST: So, they should do nothing at this stage?
COLLINS: Well, that would be a decision by the various governments, the relevant state and territory governments. I don't know if Dr Cookson would like to add anything there.
COOKSON: It's always a good idea for poultry farmers or any bird keepers to review and make sure that they have got good biosecurity plans in place and that they are taking consideration of the types of actions that can prevent that exposure between wild birds and kept birds. There is some really good advice available on birdflu.gov.au. There's a range of resources that poultry producers and bird keepers can draw on which talks about the types of considerations around preventing that contact between wild birds and poultry, and, as I've mentioned, making sure that there's no contamination of food, water sources or equipment. So, there are a range of actions that can be taken now, and we would say that that's always a good thing to have in mind and to review those plans.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned before the genetic sequencing that's been carried out. I'm just wondering, does that shed any light on where exactly some of these birds have come from or how the virus is spreading offshore amongst them?
COOKSON: What I can say from the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness analysis is that we did see a change from the wild migratory birds, so, predominantly the petrels and the brown skua, that were the first detections in Australia, where the sequences were more closely aligned to those from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the sub-Antarctic. That was the pattern that we had continued to see until we saw the infections within the greater crested terns in South Australia. The most recent analysis of those 10 sequences now, that we've got from those greater crested terns, show that there was very small shifts in the sequences between those 10, so much smaller differences in the genetic sequences than the range that we saw from those previous incursions. And so what that tells us is that there is a suggestion of more localised transmission and more direct transmission occurring within that population. What it doesn't tell us is exactly where that transmission is occurring.
JOURNALIST: Just on that, are you able to map the transmission? Because if you recall initially that the first two birds were in WA and then there is local transmission in South Australia. So, are you expecting that transmission to spread from South Australia outwards, or would there be other pockets around?
COOKSON: I don't think that I can answer that directly. What we have got from the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness is what we call a phylogenetic tree, which lays out all of the sequences and how close they are to one another. Certainly the pattern that we saw was that there was a level of closeness to those sub-Antarctic strains previously, but the difference between them is getting smaller and smaller. So, we can't say exactly where the greater crested terns were infected, but what we can say is that the new sequencing result shows us that that transmission is much more direct and local than what we were seeing with the sub-Antarctic birds that were arriving previously.
JOURNALIST: Right. And so the terns where are they found? Are they just in South Australia?
COOKSON: The greater crested tern? I'm not an expert in greater crested terns. However, they do have a broad coastal range across many areas of Australia and indeed throughout the Indo-Pacific.
JOURNALIST: Do you know if there's any, the sequencing shows any link between the Australian and New Zealand detections? So, you know, could the New Zealand detections have come from birds via Australia or similarly just from an island?
COOKSON: I don't have that information. What I can say is that the range of detections that were occurring in those wild migratory species from Western Australia all the way through to the detection in Queensland all show the similar pattern of closeness to the sub-Antarctic strains.
JOURNALIST: Just on the advice to the public, you talk about reporting dead animals, but could you be more specific about that? I mean, where are these dead animals? Are they in urban areas or beaches? Because people are calling, I think there’s been 2,000 calls. Can you just be more specific about what dead animals are being reported?
COOKSON: The reporting of sick and dead wild birds and sea mammals is sort of where the focus has been to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline, has been a really important part and continues to be a really important part of our surveillance. So, what we are saying to the public is, where you see sick and dead animals, and particularly, I guess, growing in numbers, to report that to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline so it can be triaged by the experts. Those numbers are 24 hours, seven days a week numbers. There are experts that are able to identify where there might be a higher likelihood of there being a detection of bird flu, and they will make a decision about whether further investigation is required. Even in cases where it's not required, that information helps us to understand where the potential locations of spread may be.
COLLINS: I don’t what the number is but last time we had well over 8,000.
COOKSON: Yes the overall calls to the national hotline since the 20th of June there’s now been over 10,000. So there has been a really big public reach and it’s been really important for our ability to understand the situation as it stands at the moment.
COLLINS: Hundreds of tests have been done on birds and some of those mammals through that hotline and the hotline you can find at birdflu.gov.au as well as a lot of advice for people who may have any concerns or any questions.
https://minister.agriculture.gov.au...ranscripts/doorstop-sydney-bird-flu-south-aus
