Dr. Tiggy Grillo

They might be lying on their side.

Some of the images from international events where this has affected birds are quite dramatic.

And it can be quite concerning.

But if in doubt, I think the thing is to avoid the bird, record the bird and report.

Given that we know that the virus has impacted a large number of species overseas, including mammals, and we are concerned about a number of different species here being impacted.

Now, one of the things Australia has done in advance and as part of preparing is to try and identify what are the key species that are potentially going to be at highest risk

And that takes into account lots of different factors, including whether or not similar species have been susceptible to infection and then subsequent sickness and death overseas.

So, for example, swans we know have been impacted overseas.

So maybe our black swans here, we know a bit more about black swans based on some science.

Yes, and they've been shown experimentally in some studies many, many years ago to be particularly susceptible.

But we haven't done that work on a lot of species.

So marine mammals are really the ones in the firing line in the first instance, because this virus tends to be seen in colonial or aggregating bird species, so probably shorebird species on the coastline.

That's where we see marine mammals, where they might be living together or cohabiting.

That's where we might see transmission occurring.

So we're certainly worried about our marine mammals, specifically first seals and sea lions.

And then the other species that could be potentially at risk in Australia are the ones that scavenge on birds or eat birds.

So in Tasmania, which is where I'm based, the Tasmanian devil could scavenge on little penguins, for example, that might be infected.

And so we'd be worried about Tasmanian devils from that perspective.

That's a great word.

There are lots of things in the toolkit that can be put together.