Could we vaccinate wild populations against the looming bird flu catastrophe?
By Bianca Hall
In Antarctica, researchers have been confronted with the sight of large numbers of sea lions gasping for breath as they died.
In Peru, half the local pelican population was wiped out within months of the deadly H5N1 virus landing, and when it hit South America in 2023, it claimed 30,000 sea lions and 18,000 southern elephant seal pups.
Kakapos are critically endangered in the wild.Credit: Getty Images
The highly contagious strain of bird flu has spread across much of Asia, Europe, North and South America, Africa and Antarctica, killing hundreds of millions of birds and at least tens of thousands of mammals.
Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands remain mercifully free of the disease. So far.
As bird flu spreads, some experts in Australia have expressed frustration that governments are not doing enough. Others have called for radical solutions, like attempting the vaccination of key wild populations.
New Zealand has vaccinated critically endangered kakapos – stout, ground-dwelling parrots, of which fewer than 300 remain – and four other endangered bird species. The United States has successfully vaccinated and released condors. So why haven’t Australian authorities turned to vaccines before H5N1’s almost-certain destruction hits Australian shores?
Condors have been rescued, vaccinated and released in the United States.Credit: Getty Images
A spokesman for Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said the government had earlier this year procured inactivated H5 avian influenza vaccine “for potential use in rare, protected and valuable Australian non-poultry bird species”.
“The government is considering vaccination of priority threatened and native bird species in captivity, which would build on well-established biosecurity and national response measures already in place,” he said.
Broadscale vaccinations of birds in the wild was not considered appropriate, feasible or practicable, he added.
For BirdLife Australia chief executive Kate Millar, Australia’s preparation for the bird flu juggernaut, which has hit every other continent on the globe, is frustrating.
The Australian government has allocated more than $100 million to the fight against bird flu, but Millar contends it is moving too slowly to enact defences ahead of the virus landing in Australia.
Not only is the vaccination program still in its testing phase, it is still not confirmed that vaccination will even take place.
“Where are the practical, concrete outcomes, other than meetings and PowerPoint presentations?” Millar said.
“You know, it feels more like a stakeholder management exercise than a true preparedness for a major biosecurity issue that’s going to impact conservation and agriculture and potentially human health.”
With strict biosecurity controls on Australia’s land borders, the most likely way H5N1 will arrive in Australia is on the wing of wild migratory birds.
This could happen through two scenarios: from the north, carried by migratory seabirds taking the East-Asia Australia Flyway south for spring, or from the south by birds migrating north from Antarctica.
Ornithologist, mammalogist and herpetologist Professor John Woinarski said: “I think we’ve been lucky to date [but] that luck will run out in the very near future.
“We’ve had a golden opportunity to prepare and to strategically consider what actions we need to do. And to an extent we’ve needed that opportunity because things haven’t been moving fast in terms of the response.”
Woinarski is most concerned about the spread of H5N1 from the south. Last year the virus travelled 7000 kilometres from the South Georgia Islands to the sub-Antarctic island of Kerguelen, where it was recorded in November.
Woinarski said that from Kerguelen, the virus could easily jump to Heard and McDonald islands, and then to the mainland via Macquarie Island – “probably within the next couple of months, I’d guess”.
“It’s been hanging like a sword of Damocles over our heads for a couple of years, but I think that thread is going to break very imminently, and we’ll be forced to deal with it responsively, rather than as proactively as we might have hoped.”
Workers dispose of dead cranes at the Hula Lake conservation area in northern Israel. Bird flu has killed millions of migratory birds.Credit: AP
Invasive Species Council policy director Carol Booth said H5N1 could have “catastrophic” impacts on Australian wildlife.
“With so many Australian species already edging towards extinction, we await the arrival of H5 bird flu with great trepidation,” she said.
“We are on tenterhooks – will bird flu arrive this spring, the time of greatest risk? The annual migration of millions of shorebirds from the northern hemisphere is a wonderful event but could bring catastrophe.”
The H5N1 vaccine in Australia is the same version authorities used to vaccinate rescued condors in the United States. In February, the government approved its use as an “emergency vaccination” for rare, protected and valuable species.
Bird flu can spread quickly between species, which is a risk for the wildlife in Antarctica such as these penguins and skuas.Credit: Louise Emmerson/Australian Antarctic Division.
This could include both captive populations and wild bird populations. Despite H5N1 now regularly jumping between species, the policy does not allow for non-bird populations to be vaccinated.
Australia’s black swans are particularly susceptible to the virus, and studies show they could be made extinct in an outbreak. Officials have also warned it could wipe out the 12,000 Australian sea lions left on the planet.
The current public health risk is low.
With Mike Foley
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