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Agriculture Department Secretary Adam Fennessy says bird flu is keeping him awake at night. Photo: IPAA.
The one thing that keeps Agriculture Department boss Adam Fennessy awake at night is Australia’s biosecurity; specifically, right now, how to counter the latest strain of bird flu expected to reach Australia any time soon.
Speaking on the Institute of Public Administration Australia’s podcast Work With Purpose, Mr Fennessy said there was not much chance of Australia escaping the variant as it’s already on every other continent, including Antarctica.
The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry also used the podcast to provide a user-friendly explanation of what his department is doing to prepare for the arrival.
He began by talking about the last strain that reached Australia not so long ago and the impacts it had.
“I was shopping for eggs down at the Coles in Civic because I wanted to make a Thai dinner, and the eggs were all gone, and that’s because we had an avian flu outbreak that hit Victoria, NSW and the ACT, and you don’t get a lot of notice,” Mr Fennessy said.
“Often, it’s on a Friday, you find out there’s a new variant of some disease that’s hit Australia.”
To get technical, that was called the H7 variant that led to the destruction and disposal of nearly 2 million poultry. In terms of flock, about seven or eight per cent of the national flock, and that cost maybe $120 million.
“That was a short, sharp outbreak. It actually was the biggest outbreak we’ve ever had. That is now under control and we are normalising our systems.”
But that was the last strain. The one coming poses even greater risks.
And no one is ever certain how any variant of avian flu ends up where it does, including in Australia, which is geographically isolated from other continents.
“We don’t really know. Often, that is spread by wild birds flying around and over poultry farms,” he said.
“But we trace, and in some cases, it just comes in through an import, which is why biosecurity is so important at the border, and sometimes it’s wild birds.
“The new risk … is what’s called the H5 variant of bird flu.
“It’s in every continent in the world except Australia. It’s now in Antarctica and it’s in Indonesia.
“Our best experts are saying it’s not a matter of if it’s going to get to Australia, it’s when, and you can only prepare.
“To give huge credit, the government and our minister, Minister Julie Collins, has just announced $100 million in preparedness.
“It’s not here yet. We’re working with states, territories and the poultry industry. A lot of those impacts are actually going to hit wildlife, so that’ll be brought in by migrating birds.
“They’ll either come up from the Antarctic to Tassie or the Koorong in South Australia, or they’ll come down to the Northern Territory or maybe to Far North Queensland.
“We’re investing in known wetlands around the edges of Australia, and more importantly, we are looking at our vaccine stockpiles, how we work with states and territories.”
Three exercises, called Exercise Volare, have already been run to model an H5 avian flu outbreak.
Because bird flu can jump species, it has also affected dairy cows in the US.
And it can get into humans.
“The good news for now is it’s a mild flu,” the Secretary said.
“But when flus move really fast, they can mutate. That’s what keeps me awake at night.”
There is one other thing that has the Secretary contemplatively staring into the void late at night, and that’s agricultural trade.
And he didn’t mind getting just a tad political (but not really) in his observation of how foreign politics impacts Australia.
“International trade is always precarious,” he said.
“Australia is a trading nation. Seventy per cent of our agricultural food, fisheries, forestry is exported. For example, a number of years ago, we got locked out of China – $20 billion worth of trade. The lobster ban was lifted, [just recently] announced by the PM … That was the last main trade block.
“Trade is always difficult when there’s a move back to protectionist policies.
“Without naming names, we have an election in a very big democracy on the other side of the world. One of the candidates wants to put in place a 10 to 20 per cent tariff on everything. We export billions to that nation, the US, so we’re already planning for what happens if there are new trade tariffs on … Australian beef’s going gangbusters into the US, other products.
“Trade and biosecurity keep me awake at night. All you can do is plan, invest, and prepare and then respond as it happens.”
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