Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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MUSIC
Good morning and welcome to The Daily Aus. It's Tuesday the 23rd of June. I'm Emma Gillespie. I'm Zara Seidler. A few days ago, Australia was the only continent in the world to have avoided the deadly H5 bird flu strain. After years spent watching this virus devastate wildlife populations and agricultural sectors from afar, everything changed on Saturday.
That is when the government confirmed bird flu has finally arrived on our shores. Based on the overseas experience, there could clearly be population level impacts for our species and possibly over time species level impacts. So in today's deep dive, we are going to explain why you should care and what this actually means for our wildlife, for your food bill and your health.
But first, we're going to hear a quick word from George in the TDA team.
Music Hi there, my name is George and I am TDA's Sport Manager. I lead TDA's Sport Vertical, which includes writing the daily sport newsletter, producing sport content for the feed and working with our commercial team on any sport-related partnerships. And if it's not clear already, yes, I'm a massive sports fan.
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So Em, you mentioned that Australia reached a milestone, certainly not one worth celebrating, but perhaps one that wasn't necessarily a surprise either?
Yeah, we've been sort of waiting and watching for many, many years now for this strain of bird flu to arrive here in Australia.
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Chapter 2: What recent event confirmed the arrival of bird flu in Australia?
And that all culminated on Friday with these reports of the first confirmed case of this type of bird flu online. on mainland soil from remote WA. That was then confirmed through official channels over the weekend by Agriculture Minister Julie Collins. As you mentioned, Zara, a long time coming. We have seen this strain on every other continent since 2021.
We were the last to hold it off, but authorities very much spoke about this virus as a matter of if not when in terms of it would be coming here. And in recent years, the government has therefore been working as quickly and as hard as it could to ensure that we were as prepared as possible for this moment.
Yeah, it's super interesting. And I mean, I guess before we move on, we should probably do some defining. I am going to presume that the name tells you a little bit about what this is. But for anyone that's not familiar, what is bird flu? And specifically, I guess, what is this strain and why is it so problematic?
Yeah. So bird flu, avian influenza, has been around in birds for a very, very long time. It comes in many, many forms and strains like most viruses, and most strains have very little to no disease associated with them. But this strain, H5N1 or H5, is different. It's what we call highly pathogenic. That means it kills birds rapidly and it spreads really, really easily and quickly between them.
So the spread of H5 comes through a wide range of pathways. That's sort of part of why it's so widespread across the world. But it's typically spread through faeces, especially in water, direct contact, aerosol transmission. So that's when particles are inhaled. And that happens particularly on poultry farms. It can also be spread through predation and scavenging.
So when an animal eats an infected carcass, it gets bird flu. That's how we end up with bird flu in other species beyond just birds. But since 2021, it's caused what scientists are describing as a global animal pandemic.
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Chapter 3: Why should we care about the bird flu outbreak?
Hundreds of millions of wild birds have died. There have been mass die-offs of sea lions, seals. Like I said, it's been detected on every continent, including Antarctica, where it's killed massive populations of penguins and birds and other species. Australia was the last place on earth that hadn't seen this strain until, of course, now.
So it passes through birds who fly and migrate. How then does our continent end up as the last one in the world without this? Because like in my head when before you started speaking, I was like, oh, it's because we have such strict quarantine rules. I was like, no, they're birds. They're not stopping at border security when they get to the airport. I'd be like, no, nothing to declare here.
How have we evaded that sort of transmission here?
Well, our quarantine laws are still important in this space. So if you've been somewhere where there is a high prevalence of bird flu, you know, your shoes will need to be clean on entry to Australia to make sure they're not carrying those particles of faeces. So there are border regulations that do come in useful here to protect us.
But mostly why we've avoided it comes down to a little bit of luck. Australia is so isolated geographically. We can't be bothered going all the way there. Yeah. Yeah, the birds are like, no thanks. We're literally an island, relatively isolated. Plus, according to the Doherty Institute, one of the big reasons that we've avoided H5 is because of bird migration patterns.
It's been in Asia since the 90s. And you think of Asia as sort of our neighbours in the Pacific. Yeah. But there are no duck species that migrate between Australia and Asia. Ducks are big spreaders of bird flu because of their sort of long migratory cycles or patterns. So there are no ducks that migrate to Antarctica. There might be some listeners trying to point that out.
But gulls, skewers, giant petrels, all these sorts of birds that are called pelagic bird species.
I'm learning lots about birds right now.
Learning a lot about birds. They are also, along with ducks, thought to be long-distance carriers of this virus. So that's how we get bird flu in Antarctica and in the sub-Antarctic regions. That's important because birds there breed and roam the Southern Ocean, but during our winter, the Southern Hemisphere winter, They are known to venture into the Indian and Pacific Oceans in search for food.
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Chapter 4: What is bird flu and why is the H5N1 strain concerning?
They're so little. Tassie devils, several parrot species, even the humble pelican. These are all species that could be highly susceptible if the virus spreads here. This might be really stupid of me. I thought the Tasmanian devil was extinct. No, I think you're thinking of the Tasmanian tiger.
I am. Anyway, moving on. Okay. So with that settled, how is the government then, I guess, monitoring or like what does preparedness look like? You said that we have this kind of precedent to point to this isn't like COVID-19 where we're like, oh my God, this is... out of nowhere and we have no idea what to do with it. We know what to do with it. What does that look like for the government?
Yeah, I really think of this as being the second reassuring part of this story. The first being that there's no huge risk of human to human transmission, that nothing changes directly in our lives or in the public health response. Secondly, this reassuring part of the story is that we've had years and years of preparation.
Initially, that looked like in August 2024, the government issuing travel warnings for Aussies who were heading to Europe, Asia, the Americas, and then that filtered through to our quarantine and border response to go back to what we were talking about earlier in the episode. But in October 2024, the government announced nearly $100 million for to protect Australia from H5.
That included $37 million specifically for the agriculture sector, funding for biodiversity protection, and $22 million for pandemic vaccine stockpiling. When I say vaccine, I'm talking specifically about a vaccination for birds, not for people. But those vaccines were purchased by the government in February 2025. That vaccine isn't really about the poultry sector.
It's about protecting non-poultry bird species with a particular focus on threatened species. There's also a dedicated national task force that's been stood up, being jointly led by the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Disease Control, the National Emergency Management Agency. So a lot of people throwing a lot of effort and money towards this.
When it was detected on Heard Island late last year, that Australian territory, the Environment Minister, Mari Watt, said researchers were monitoring the global spread of so that we are equipped with the best possible information for when it reaches our shores, when not if.
And this week, Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said Australia is, quote, well prepared to respond quickly to protect poultry production and reduce impacts on wildlife and communities.
This whole time I've been thinking about where you vaccinate a bird.
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Chapter 5: How has Australia managed to avoid the bird flu until now?
Like I don't think that I would do it if there were people I knew.
Well, the thing I love about the nude solstice swim is there's two separate areas. There's one area which is like the media area where if you swim naked there, you're basically consenting to be photographed. You're saying you're up for being interviewed. But there's a whole other section of the river of people swimming nude who don't want to be seen or photographed. It's a lot more private.
They're just doing their thing. Wow. So I don't know what would be better to be with the private group Or to have the safety in numbers of everyone just being like, wahoo, we're out and proud.
Well, I think that next year we're going to be coming to you live from Dark Mofo where we do this podcast in the nude. In the Derwent River, in the nude. Where it's warmer than it is outside. Just slightly hypothermic. All for a good story. Anyway, thank you for joining us for this episode of The Daily Oars. We'll be back later today with the headlines. But until then, have a great day.
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arundar, Bundjalung, Kalkadoon woman from Gadigal country. The Daily Oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadigal people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations. We pay our respects to the First Peoples of these countries, both past and present.
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