Warning bird flu outbreak may reach penguins in Sydney Harbour

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The New South Wales Environment Minister, Penny Sharpe, has warned a bird flu outbreak may reach a penguin colony in Sydney Harbour. The minister will meet with experts to discuss how to prevent the flu from spreading among Australia’s wildlife.

Transcript

00:00The NSW Environment Minister has highlighted concerns over a particularly deadly strain

00:07of bird flu that's yet to hit Australian shores.

00:10She's hoping a meeting of key experts and volunteer organisations today will help identify

00:15how they can potentially mitigate the effects on native populations.

00:19It is the H5N1 strain, known to be a particularly deadly one, even more so than the H7 strain

00:26currently affecting chicken farms in Australia.

00:29The virus has been ripping through other continents.

00:31It's caused tens of thousands of deaths of seals and sea lions in North America alone.

00:37Here in Sydney it could potentially mean a devastating impact on the local penguin population.

00:43Minister Sharpe spoke about it yesterday in Parliament.

00:45Take a listen.

00:46I can't actually overstate how serious this is.

00:50Things like the little penguin colony at Manly could be wiped out by this.

00:55In Peru, 40% of their pelicans have died as a result of having this flu.

01:01We've got areas like Baranguba and Montague Island where we've got a huge number of birds.

01:06All of those islands off the coast, if it gets into those populations they genuinely

01:10could be decimated.

01:12Australia is the only continent to yet be affected by the H5N1 strain and some experts

01:18are saying it's a matter of when and not if it lands on our shores.

01:22Speaking yesterday, the Minister said that warming conditions and the impact of migratory

01:27birds had heightened the risk.

01:29She's hoping that meeting today will help experts identify how they can mitigate the

01:33impacts in Australia.

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