BirdingNZ.net

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI, H5N1, bird flu) is taking a toll on Northern Hemisphere birds.
https://www.eaaflyway.net/alert-ai-in-seabirds/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/02/geese-skuas-cranes-foxes-avian-flu-takes-growing-toll-on-wildlife-aoe
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-62253049

We should be alert to the potential for this to to spread to NZ, especially when we start to get migrants arriving.
Brett Gartrell at Massey has the following advice.


In the event your shoreline surveys identify an unusual number of mortalities, then you should ring the exotic disease hotline for advice

EXOTIC PEST AND DISEASE HOTLINE – 0800 80 99 66

The difficulty comes in knowing when the number of dead birds is unusual as we always get mortality in any wildlife population, but your groups have extensive baseline data and will probably be best placed to recognise a spike in mortality.

MPI work collaboratively with DOC in wildlife investigations and Wildbase and commercial veterinary pathology labs may be asked to be involved depending on where the mortality occurs.

Some general guidelines for collecting wildlife carcasses might be useful here

1. Make sure your people are wearing good PPE. Disposable gloves and face masks recommended
2. Place any bodies singly into sealed plastic bags with two labels (one in another small ziplock bag inside the body bag, and one attached to the outside). The outside one often gets lost hence the need for redundancy here. The label should have the species (if known), date of collection, site of collection, name of collector as a minimum.
3. If bodies are being sent to the lab immediately, then refrigerate prior to transport and send with icepacks to keep cool. Ensure the lab knows its coming. If the bodies are to be held for more than a day or two before sending to the lab, freeze them. Note this on the label.

While the idea that a sick bird would not make the migration journey holds some comfort, its worth remembering that HPAI has a 14 day incubation period. That is the time between a bird getting infected and starting to show disease is 2 weeks. Most of our migratory species could easily complete their migration in this period, so geography only provides a certain amount of protection.

Reuters reports that the carcasses of thousands of migrant seabirds have washed up on the shores of eastern Canada this week and preliminary findings showed that the birds died of avian influenza.


Link to Reuters news report: https://www.reuters.com/business/enviro ... LGgXTbEpFg

‘Unstoppable’ bird flu epidemic causes growing alarm among Dutch farmers (The Guardian)

With millions of chickens and ducks culled, farmers say only a vaccine can save the poultry sector from the ‘invisible enemy’

Link to article; https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ch-farmers

Advice from avian influenza experts suggests that there is a high risk that Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza will arrive in the Southern Ocean 2022/23-2024/25 austral summers:
https://ecoevorxiv.org/8jrbu/

Yet further concerns raised from Ireland, also mentioning specifically the threat to poultry: https://www.thejournal.ie/birdwatch-ireland-seabirds-avian-flu-5864076-Sep2022/. Given MPI's tendency to suppress any risks to commercial interests here, such as H5N1 might pose, it would not surprise me if extreme measures are proposed to control the spread of this H5N1 outbreak, if it reaches here (elimination of potential carriers among wild birds?). The point in the article about picking up any carcasses (being careful to wear suitable PPE) is also relevant. Anything more than, say, 3-5 carcasses of the same species in close proximity need to be sent to the authorities mentioned in Neil's post above, or disposed of in some appropriate way (incineration, deep burial), to avoid any infected tissues being moved by scavengers, including gulls. Incidentally, the comments to the The Journal article are also worth reading, to get some additional sense of scale of this emerging pandemic.

Peter

Rosie and I found 4 dead Gannets washed up on the high tide line today.
This was at Templeton beach county Louth.
Its sad to see.
What is worry is kids taking feathers off the carcases to take home.
I explained to the parents that it wasn't a good idea.
I'm starting to love it up here but its really sad to see all the dead birds.

The following news items from Peru report the first evidence of HPAI H5N1 arriving in the southern hemisphere:
https://www.laprensalatina.com/peru-reports-death-of-13000-seabirds-from-bird-flu/
https://newscentral.news/en/2022/11/30/bird-flu-kills-almost-14000-pelicans-seabirds-in-peru/

The link below is to an interview with Brett Gartrell, one of our most prominent wildlife veterinarians, summarising concerns about the possibility of this strain of avian influenza arriving in New Zealand, and the potentially devastating impact that this could have on populations of our endemic birds, especially those threatend in various other ways: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/brett-gartrell-avian-influenza-could-devastate-native-birds/NR7NPL6DARHMHCZROLAR2XEWDI/.

These emphasise the importance of remaining vigilant and report any unusual concentrations of dead birds, in the first instance especially among migratory waders and seabirds. Neil's item that started this thread provide guidelines on what to do if anything untoward is found.

Peter

Brett Gartrell's interview with RNZ National was on Saturday Morning yesterday as well. It is well worth a listen. Don't take any sick birds to wildlife hospitals, in case the full complement of birds there might have to be destroyed.

"I helped pick up 6,000 dead seabirds last summer. This is what I learned about the horrors of bird flu" - The Guardian

In the past year, avian flu has ravaged colonies of seabirds in the UK. Gwen Potter, a National Trust countryside manager working on the Farne Islands, was among those who donned hazmat suits on the frontline:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... 1672835585

It will eventually reach us its just a matter of time.
Maybe winter or next Summer.