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No sign of bird flu in Kakadu's magpie geese

By Adrienne Francis

Friday, 28/10/2005

As part of the same program of monitoring, the = Northern=20 Australia Quarantine Strategy carried out testing of magpie geese in = Kakadu=20 National Park in August. The magpie geese were being captured for a = research=20 project of the Charles Darwin University School for Environmental = Research. This=20 project provided an opportunity for quarantine surveillance of these = wild=20 nomadic birds. Veterinary officer, Dr Emma Watkins, says surveillance = locations=20 are chosen according to bird fly ways, where large numbers congregate. = She says=20 there was no sign of bird flu in the magpie geese, which are regarded as = nomadic=20 waterfowl. Magpie geese annually congregate on the flood plains across = Kakadu=20 National Park. Dr Watkins says laboratory results found no bird flu = antibodies=20 or virus. "The same work carried out in the Ord is underway in the = Territory. We=20 sampled 58 birds in August and we sampled them for both antibodies and = the=20 virus. Antibodies are like the birds response to the disease, so they = give a=20 history. If the bird had a disease a year ago you could pick up the = antibodies.=20 The virus, is where the creature actually has the virus currently. This=20 research, really we are just building a picture of the bird flu = situation in=20 Australia. The risk of introduction is very low. There are some harmless = bird=20 flues that are ordinarily present in waterfowl populations. In this case = (the=20 magpie geese) they were all negative both for antibodies and for virus, = so there=20 were no signs of any bird flu, which is interesting and a good result=20 considering they were a large population of birds that had gathered in = that area=20 from many parts of the Territory. Because there are harmless forms of = bird flu=20 present in wild waterfowl populations, we would not have been surprised = to find=20 evidence of these. Although the risk is low we are also looking out for = the H5N1=20 aswell. All the animals that we tested appeared healthy and it supports = that=20 there's a, probably a low level of virus, I mean we found no virus so = that means=20 there's probably a low level of virus in that population. We have over = the long=20 term been encouraging members of the public to report any unusual die = off or=20 unusual signs in any wild bird population, and we would investigate = those=20 things." To report animal disease nationally call 1800 675 888 or = contact your=20 local animal health authority.

In this report: Dr Emma Watkins, veterinary = officer,=20 Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy,=20 Darwin

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No sign of bird flu in Kakadu's magpie geese

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