News Story 1
- danieldmello415
- Mar 25, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
DMELLO 25/03/2022 Bird Flu
By Daniel Dmello
The Ministry of Primary Industries has announced the risk of a widespread bird flu outbreak, experts warn to “be prepared for the worst.”
The strain identified as HDSM1 has been circulating around Europe and Asia for months, and has recently been discovered in Australia, and now Napier.
A similar outbreak hit New Zealand in 2015 and saw 29,000 turkeys killed in order to prevent the spread of the virus, and the outbreak was deemed to be the most expensive animal health disaster in New Zealand costing the Government nearly $1 million.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature on Poultry (IUCNP) has put out a statement.
“We are working with the poultry industry and have advised producers and the Ministry of Primary Industries to initiate steps to address the outbreak.”
The head of rural studies at Massey University, Professor Maurice Heed weighed in with his thoughts about the current situation.
"The fear in this circumstance is driven by the discovery that the virus infecting a commercial Turkey flock in Napier will have a major effect on the country’s poultry farming sector."
The last outbreak caused egg and turkey prices to soar across the country for months, with the cost of eggs rising 61 percent and prices for boneless, skinless, turkey breasts rising 71 percent between May and July 2015.
The IUCNP have also included an “immediate quarantine” which restricts movement of poultry and equipment used to move birds, and have informed producers to have a biosecurity protocol on hand which is updated regularly in order to ensure eligibility for government indemnity payments.
Professor Maurice Heed says that he is “positive that we can tackle this situation better than in 2015”, however he has also said that we should “hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.”
The Ministry of Health has said that as of today there have been no human cases of avian influenza viruses detected in New Zealand, and the disease doesn’t present an immediate public health concern.
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