How will DoC protect native birds from bird flu?

By Dan Moskovitz

H5N1 bird flu has caused devastation in equal part both to poultry birds and wild birds. Only Australia, Aotearoa, and the Pacific remain H5N1 free - for now. Which gives us the luxury of time to figure out how to protect our taonga species.

So the Department of Conservation is in the process of drafting up avian protection plans for 49 of our at most risk birds. These include species such as the Kākāpō, Takahē, Wrybill, Whenua Hou diving petrel, and Weka, among many more.

But unlike most biosecurity incursions, the challenge with bird flu is unique. As the spread is in wild birds outside of NZ, there’s no prospect of elimination 

So what can DoC actually do to protect them? 

“We’ll be doing business as usual on steroids,” said Kate McInnes, a senior science advisor at DoC working on bird flu. 

“Take predator control - if the population shrinks because of bird flu then losing a couple birds per year to predation has a larger impact.

“So a lot of our response will be to try and take away those other threats to give the population the best chance to bounce back from bird flu.”

Another option McInnes suggests DoC is removing some bird feeders for endangered birds. If the birds can already feed themselves effectively, then having a feeder is just going to make birds congregate and transmit the virus.

DoC has also successfully trialled a vaccine to H5N1 in five separate species. The issue is, vaccinating a bird against H5N1 requires two doses, four weeks apart. Birds fly, and the ones which don’t walk, meaning ensuring every wild bird gets two doses is impractical for a lot of species. So DoC’s task there is to figure out which ones it's conceivable in.

“We’ve drafted up species where we think we could potentially do vaccinations, but we haven’t given it a reality check yet,” said McInnes. “We still need to talk to our stakeholders, treaty partners, and experts.”

Alongside birds, DoC is also making plans for five of Aotearoa’s native marine mammals, which are also susceptible. These are the New Zealand fur seal, New Zealand sea lion, southern elephant seal, Hector’s dolphin and Maui dolphin. When asked how the equation changes when it comes to dealing with marine mammals, McInnes says it’s “really, really, difficult” “We don’t have a vaccine for marine mammals. So it’s essentially just restricting access to them so people aren’t spreading disease, and cleaning up if we’ve got sick and dying animals.”

“We won’t be able to prevent them from getting infected and there’s not really a lot of interaction we can do.”

While H5N1 hasn’t caused extinctions overseas, it’s another stressor on many of Aotearoa’s native fauna.

“We have threatened species programmes which have had a lot of effort and resources put into them. And they’ll go backwards. And they’ll have to work their way back up. 

“The combination of bird flu and other pressures coming together might just tip things over the edge. We’re busting a gut to prevent that from happening. But we just can’t predict at this stage which animals will be affected and how badly.” McInnes says the most important thing the public can do is follow the messaging coming out of the government, and under no circumstances pick up sick birds. 

If you encounter a bird showing symptoms of avian influenza, please take a video and call Biosecurity New Zealand on their hotline: 0800 80 99 66.

Symptoms include falling over, twisting their neck to look upwards, lethargy, and drooping heads. Finding three or more dead birds in one area is also a reason to contact Biosecurity.

Transmission of bird flu to humans is uncommon but not impossible. However, its mortality rate in humans is 52%. Do not touch any bird showing symptoms.