TRIP

Australia culls ducks in bid to stop bird flu outbreak

Reuters Health News, 2012

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A mother Mallard Duck leads its nine baby ducklings during a swim in Sydney Harbour January 27, 2006.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia on Wednesday was in the process of killing 24,000 ducks in the hope of stemming an outbreak of bird flu that led to a ban on Australian exports of poultry products to Japan, along with some restrictions by some other Asian countries.
The executive director of the Australian Chicken Foundation, Andreas Dubs, said the ducks were being destroyed after testing positive to a low pathogenic strain of the virus.
The outbreak does not pose the same health concerns as the potentially deadly H5N1 strain, which was first detected in 1997 in Hong Kong and has since devastated duck and chicken flocks in Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Iran, according to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
This is not an unusual occurrence." At this stage, the outbreak was restricted to two farms near the eastern city of Melbourne in Victoria state, according to Dubs.
Japan's farm ministry announced a ban on poultry imports from Australia on January 27, saying it wanted to prevent the spread of the virus.
Dubs said the ban by Japan, along with partial bans of poultry from Victoria by Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam, were "over reactions" given the limited outbreaks of the virus.
"This is limited to two farms, one of which has already been depopulated of ducks and the other is in the process," Dubs said.
In 2010, Japan imported 1.2 tons of poultry and 0.7 tons of eggs from Australia, according to Japanese trade data.
Australia exports about 4 percent of its poultry products each year to about 60 countries, with Hong Kong typically the biggest buyer, Dubs said.