Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 8:20:52 to 8:23:30
The Chief Veterinary Officer provides a state-by-state breakdown of the 723 confirmed H5 bird flu events in wildlife as of late October 2024, noting that poultry remains unaffected.
Topics: Biosecurity, Animal welfare
Speakers: Dr Beth Cookson, Senator Paul Scarr, Unknown Speaker
meeting here today? Um yes um as of um
>> and if you could break it down by states if you've got that data with these questions on your list >> a few okay I'll keep going
>> um so Senator as at the 26th of October 2026 um >> uh 4
>> yesterday
>> 4 yesterday. 4 p.m. yesterday.
>> Yep.
>> I'm sure that was the 26th. Yeah. >> 26th of October. Um 723 confirmed events um of H5 bird flu in wildlife. Um, that's been 336 recorded in South Australia, 246 in Victoria, 53 in Tasmania, 75 in New South Wales, um 10 in Western Australia, two in Queensland, and one in a um Javas Bay territory, which is a Commonwealth territory, so it's reported separately.
>> Do you know where the two in Queensland
Um they um there was one um near Nusa >> on a beach there. Um >> I would have to get the detail about the
second one. Sorry. I'm just interested
as a lot. Um what I would say about the Queensland detections though is that they have not appeared to continue. um they have been um um detections in individual uh seabirds um and they haven't um reported any additional ones for some time now.
>> Okay. So just to be clear uh no events impacting poultry,
>> no um no events no detections in poultry or the broader agriculture um industry. Um, as you'd be aware, um, about 97% um, of the events have involved wild birds. >> Um, and then there have been a few mam mammal um, infections um, throughout the course of the outbreak so far. And I just want to clarify the events relate to um, confirmed um, positive investigations. They may relate to um, one or more animals. So it certainly doesn't um quantify the number of animals that have been impacted. Um the um priority for the reporting is to demonstrate where bird flu um is spreading within Australian wildlife.