The New South Wales Environment Minister, Penny Sharpe, has warned a bird flu outbreak may reach a penguin colony in Sydney Harbour. The minister will meet with experts to discuss how to prevent the flu from spreading among Australia’s wildlife.
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00:00The NSW Environment Minister has highlighted concerns over a particularly deadly strain
00:07of bird flu that's yet to hit Australian shores.
00:10She's hoping a meeting of key experts and volunteer organisations today will help identify
00:15how they can potentially mitigate the effects on native populations.
00:19It is the H5N1 strain, known to be a particularly deadly one, even more so than the H7 strain
00:26currently affecting chicken farms in Australia.
00:29The virus has been ripping through other continents.
00:31It's caused tens of thousands of deaths of seals and sea lions in North America alone.
00:37Here in Sydney it could potentially mean a devastating impact on the local penguin population.
00:43Minister Sharpe spoke about it yesterday in Parliament.
00:45Take a listen.
00:46I can't actually overstate how serious this is.
00:50Things like the little penguin colony at Manly could be wiped out by this.
00:55In Peru, 40% of their pelicans have died as a result of having this flu.
01:01We've got areas like Baranguba and Montague Island where we've got a huge number of birds.
01:06All of those islands off the coast, if it gets into those populations they genuinely
01:10could be decimated.
01:12Australia is the only continent to yet be affected by the H5N1 strain and some experts
01:18are saying it's a matter of when and not if it lands on our shores.
01:22Speaking yesterday, the Minister said that warming conditions and the impact of migratory
01:27birds had heightened the risk.
01:29She's hoping that meeting today will help experts identify how they can mitigate the
01:33impacts in Australia.