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A global wildlife pandemic is escalating.
Avian influenza (aka bird flu) is wreaking havoc globally, with a new, deadlier strain forging a path of wildlife destruction.
Since 2021, the H5N1 highly pathogenic bird flu strain has wiped out millions of birds and tens of thousands of mammals.
In South America, H5N1 has recently evolved to spread between mammals, not just from birds to mammals, signalling a chilling escalation in its adaptability and threat to wildlife worldwide.
Australia is the last continent free of this deadly strain but many experts warn it will inevitably get here.
Australia has effectively responded to bird flu in poultry many times but is poorly prepared for outbreaks in wildlife.
The government predicts the impact on Australia’s birds to be ‘catastrophic’ but with enough preparation, Australia can reduce the losses and prevent extinctions.
'This deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu could be equivalent to the black summer bushfires in terms of the scale of deaths of our native birds,’
The toll on native wildlife
H5N1 has left a devastating trail across continents. So far it has affected more than 500 bird and 60 mammal species, causing devastating declines, including:
In addition to these staggering losses, many wildlife deaths remain undocumented.
The impact extends beyond wildlife. Poultry has suffered mass losses and there are even reports of dairy cattle and goats in the United States being affected.
Most mammal infections are due to contact with infected birds, but the large losses of marine mammals in South America indicate that H5N1 can evolve to spread between mammals.
Potential Impacts in Australia
If H5N1 arrives in Australia the consequences are hard to predict, but the evidence overseas shows any bird or mammal species could be susceptible.
H5N1 is likely to be particularly catastrophic for wetland and sea birds, some raptors, seals and sea lions, as well as highly threatened species.
Potential victims include the majestic black swan, which, unlike its white cousin, lacks some of the immune-related genes needed to fight off bird flu and other viral illnesses.
Australia has been highly effective in controlling bird flu in poultry by culling infected flocks and eliminating the virus.
But managing bird flu in wildlife presents a far greater challenge, as the virus cannot be eradicated.
The focus must shift to limiting spread and impact through surveillance, disturbance prevention, carcass removal (where feasible) and potential vaccination of at-risk species.
Advocacy by the Invasive Species Council has spurred the Australian Government into action. The federal, state and territory governments are now collaborating to prepare for the potential arrival of bird flu this spring.
Wildlife Health Australia has prepared useful resources for decision-makers and wildlife managers, with mitigation toolboxes outlining recommended response options.
Most urgent is the preparation of site-specific and species-specific plans to minimise disturbance and spread and to keep humans safe.
To date, preparations have been patchy and time could be running out.
What’s Next?
As the last continent free of H5N1 Australia has had the benefit of time to prepare. More resources, collaboration, planning and research are needed before bird flu arrives.
The Invasive Species Council is calling for governments to urgently:
The ongoing threat of bird flu exposes critical gaps in Australia’s biosecurity system.
While Australia has effective measures for eradicating newly arriving invasive species and addressing chronic threats, we lack a national collaborative approach for managing new and emerging non-eradicable threats, like H5N1.
Currently, responsibility falls to individual states and territories, which is inadequate for responding to threats of this scale and severity.
Australia needs new national processes, including funding arrangements, to foster collaborative and effective responses to emerging severe invasive threats that cannot be eradicated.
Unfortunately, H5N1 will not be the last catastrophic new invasive species to arrive on our shores.
How you can help: Learn about what role you can play in protecting Australia from bird flu
If you spot clusters of sick or dead birds, do not handle them. Call the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline at 1800 675 888.
The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. The Invasive Species Council supports voting ‘YES’ for a Voice to Parliament.
Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.
Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.
