PEAK BODY FOR WILDLIFE HEALTH JOINS CALLS TO ‘HEAL COUNTRY!’ DURING NAIDOC WEEK - 4 JUNE 2021

Australia’s peak body protecting the health of native wildlife - Wildlife Health Australia is poised to celebrate NAIDOC week from 4 -11 July by respectfully embracing this year’s theme of Heal Country, heal our nation.
 
NAIDOC Week’s rally to ‘Heal Country!’ calls for stronger measures to recognise, protect, and maintain all aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage.
 
Wildlife Health Australia is currently reimagining the breadth of its endeavours for Australian wildlife and has recently committed to working collaboratively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and individuals to draw on tens of thousands of years of their knowledge, wisdom and insights in caring for Country.
 
The focus on partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples includes enhanced surveillance of the health of Australia’s precious wildlife, and support and care for the recovery of vital ecosystems.
 
In the spirit of the theme ‘Heal Country!’, Wildlife Health Australia has recently reported to the Australian government on recommendations for emergency preparedness for wildlife in times of bushfires, undertaken improved surveillance of wildlife health across Australia and the Antarctic, and enhanced biosecurity measures to protect against introduced diseases.
 
Wildlife Health Australia CEO Dr Rupert Woods has encouraged all its members and partner organisations to join in this year’s NAIDOC Week events and consider and participate in specific activities that directly contribute to Heal Country!
 
Wildlife Health Australia pays its respect to the aims of this year’s NAIDOC week:
 
Healing Country means embracing First Nation’s cultural knowledge and understanding of Country as part of Australia's national heritage. That the culture and values of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders are respected equally to and the cultures and values of all Australians (NAIDOC Week website).

World Environment Day 5 June 2021 - a Call to Action - 4 JUNE 2021

This World Environment Day (June 5) Wildlife Health Australia is issuing an invitation and challenge to our members, stakeholders and all Australians to get active and take up our role as Generation Restoration to prevent and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide.

Wildlife Health Australia’s CEO Dr Rupert Woods said:

“In Australia, maintaining viable habitat for our wildlife is absolutely critical. 80% of our wildlife is found nowhere else on earth. We are the custodians of many of the rarest and most precious wildlife ever seen.

“And it’s never been more important to acknowledge that animal health and human health are absolutely interdependent and bound to the health of the ecosystems in which we all live. By understanding this vital link, we can track the health of our wildlife wherever they are found and help ensure their management and management of the environments in which they live for the benefit of all of us.”

The message for the UN’s World Environment Day on June 5 is:

“This is our moment. We cannot turn back time. But we can grow trees, green our cities, rewild our gardens, change our diets and clean up rivers and coasts. We are the generation that can make peace with nature. Let’s get active, not anxious. Let’s be bold, not timid. 
Join #GenerationRestoration.”

Links: 
World Environment Day
OIE One Health
 
Wildlife Health Australia
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How is Australia impacted by the recent increase in Detections of Avian Influenza in the Northern Hemisphere? - 24 february 2021

Avian influenza virus (AIV) infection can cause severe disease in poultry and can also infect and cause disease in a range of other species including wild birds and humans. There are two categories of AIVs: low pathogenicity and high pathogenicity.
 
The main natural reservoirs for low pathogenicity strains of AIV are wild waterfowl and to a lesser extent, shorebirds, with infection typically resulting in only mild or no clinical signs of disease in these birds. Whilst a rare occurrence, low pathogenicity strains of AIV can spill over from wild bird populations into poultry where they can then mutate into high pathogenicity viruses leading to severe disease and high mortality.
 
Data generated by the National Avian Influenza Wild Bird Surveillance (NAIWB) program, which screens samples from wild birds for AIVs, is used to monitor and understand avian influenza in wild birds in Australia. Over the life of the 17-year program, thousands of wild bird samples have been screened with no high pathogenicity AIVs found in our wild birds.
 
The high pathogenicity avian influenza virus strains (goose/Guandong HPAI H5Nx virus clade 2.3.4.4) currently circulating in the northern hemisphere originally emerged in 2014 and has spread with wild birds from Asia to Europe, Africa, and North America. 
 
Unlike other strains, these virus strains have been detected in apparently healthy wild birds, likely facilitating their rapid intercontinental spread through bird migration.
 
To date, Australia remains free from these strains of viruses currently being detected in the northern hemisphere. Studies to date have found no evidence that migratory birds are carrying infectious high pathogenicity viruses when they arrive in Australia. Analysis of recent outbreaks of AIV in poultry in Victoria were found to be strains closely related to those circulating in Australian wild birds, and not imported avian influenza virus strains from Asia or elsewhere.
 
However, the current widespread and frequent detection of high pathogenicity AIVs in the northern hemisphere, notably Europe and Asia, likely means an increased level of risk to Australia, though previous research has assessed the overall risk of introduction of high pathogenicity AIVs to Australia to be low. 
 
Increased awareness and vigilance by Australian poultry producers and wildlife health professionals is advised. There is a need to remain vigilant by:

• maintaining best biosecurity practices by poultry producers and wildlife professionals
• investigating unusual and mass bird (domestic and wild bird) sickness and/or deaths
• reporting any such events: https://www.outbreak.gov.au/report-outbreak
• continuing monitor AIV strains circulating in apparently healthy Australian wild birds for overseas strains through the NAIWB program.  
• reporting any unusual signs of disease or deaths in wildlife to: Your State/Territory Wildlife Health Australia (WHA) Coordinator, or the 24-hour Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on freecall 1800 675 888.

 
Further technical information: 

• Technical Issue Update from the NAIWB Steering Group on Global High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza Events.
• WHA Fact sheet on avian influenza in wild birds in Australia.
• Find out more, including surveillance news, about Australia's Wild Bird Surveillance program.

First ever national guidelines for managing wildlife diseases released - Dec 2020

If you work with our native wildlife, then make sure you get your claws on the first ever National Guidelines for Management of Disease in Free-ranging Australian Wildlife. Disease can have huge impacts on our unique wildlife.

Determining what to do when a disease affects large numbers of wildlife, like mange in wombats or chytrid fungus in frogs, can be challenging.

The new guidelines developed by Wildlife Health Australia will help everyone from decision-makers to staff in the field, understand the options for managing disease in wildlife populations.

Written in consultation with experienced disease managers and ecologists, the guidelines draw together existing approaches and outline considerations for choosing the approach that is right for your situation.