Australia
has so far eluded bird flu and Murdoch is playing a significant role in keeping
it at bay.
The threat that an introduction of 'H5N1' (as this rogue strain of avian influenza is otherwise known) would pose to our $2.83 billion poultry industry is serious.
It was bird flu, along with regional initiatives to control foot-and-mouth disease and classical swine fever in South East Asia that saw Murdoch’s Division of Veterinary and Biomedical Studies recently taking an active research role in control of major regional animal and bird disease. The Division has emerged as a frontline combatant in protecting Australia.
Murdoch’s armoury was boosted significantly with the recruitment earlier this year of Dr Trevor Ellis, now Senior Research Fellow with the Division. An internationally recognised expert in veterinary laboratory diagnostics, Dr Ellis had previously spent 6 years helping establish Hong Kong’s state-of-the-art animal health laboratory, work that extended to dealing with outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), SARS and foot-and-mouth disease.
Dr Ellis’s recruitment was a homecoming – he has a PhD from Murdoch and was Principal Veterinary Virologist with WA’s Department of Agriculture for 17 years before being recruited to Hong Kong.
“WA’s preparedness against bird flu is first rate – we have cutting edge diagnostic technologies, stockpiles of various antiviral drugs and Australia has one of the recognised international laboratories developing vaccines,” said Dr Ellis.
“But when it’s all said and done it will be vigilance that keeps the virus out of Australia’s poultry flocks.”
Murdoch’s work with H5N1 avian influenza is varied, ranging from basic risk assessment of how the disease spreads from wild and domestic water fowl, to highly innovative vaccine development. Data collected from Croatia to China is being analysed to gain some understanding of the interaction between ducks, the virus and the environment involved in the evolution of H5N1 virus, which led to outbreaks in wild waterfowl in 2002 and then the region-wide disease spread to humans in 2003 to 2005.
"When all is said and done it will be vigilance that keeps the virus out of Australia's poultry flocks."
Dr Trevor Ellis
The vaccine work is aimed at developing new vaccines that will better suit developing countries at the frontline, where vaccine distribution and cold-chain facilities are few and far between.
Meanwhile, the risk of bird flu getting into Australia’s poultry industry is ever present. While most attention is directed towards preventing direct contamination – by way of footwear and/or clothing of people who may have visited highly infectious areas of Asia or Europe – the risk of indirect transfers is also cause for concern. Bird smuggling is another worry, said Dr Ellis.
“Biosecurity is a vital defence. Keeping wild water fowl and commercial poultry separate is imperative. Chicken farms, for example, must never use untreated water from local wetlands.” Although this is not mandatory, the poultry industry has excelled in self regulation by confining water supplies to scheme water or treated water from other sources.
A lesser but very real risk, is migratory birds. The Grey Knot, for example, which breeds each year in the Arctic Circle, travels south to Australia every year through areas of Asia where bird flu is present.
“Contaminations from east-west migrations – from China to Siberia to Turkey – have already been documented, and while north-south transfers of bird flu are yet to be established, the risk is there,” cautioned Dr Ellis.
