Bird-flu virus coming to NZ

The deadly bird-flu virus will be imported into New Zealand early next year.

A ministerial paper obtained by the Weekend Herald under the Official Information Act reveals that Biosecurity NZ wants the virus for diagnosis and staff training.

"Rapid diagnosis could mean the difference between a disease being confined to a small group of individual birds, or spreading widely throughout the country," the paper says.

Fast diagnosis would allow swift culling of affected birds, but is at present hampered by having to send samples to Australia.

Live stores of the virus will be held in a secure laboratory at Wallaceville in the Hutt Valley.

The prospect has alarmed those in the poultry and egg industries, who fear the virus could escape.

"Of course that would be our major concern," said Michael Brooks, the executive director of the Poultry Industry Association and the Egg Producers Federation.

They fear an escape could decimate poultry flocks and imperil the industries and their status as free of three major bird diseases, including highly infectious forms of bird flu.

Tens of millions of chickens and other birds have been slaughtered because of bird flu or have died of it, mainly in Asia but also in Europe.

Seventy-one people have died from the disease since it re-emerged in Asia in 2003.

It does not easily infect or spread between humans. But virus experts say it could adapt to do so, quickly encircling the globe in a flu pandemic that could kill 2 million to more than 7 million people, including 33,000 in New Zealand.

That is why fast diagnosis and culling of affected flocks is considered vital.

The director of Biosecurity New Zealand's investigation and diagnostic centres, Hugh Davies, said yesterday the agency was talking to poultry industry representatives, but it was unlikely they would provide viable alternatives to importing live virus.

In the paper in September to the Biosecurity Minister at the time, Jim Sutton, Dr Davies said: "If the virus was to escape from containment the consequences could be severe if susceptible animals came into contact with the virus.

"However, the likelihood of it escaping and infecting a susceptible animal is extremely low."

Dr Davies said the frozen virus, probably from a laboratory near Melbourne, would be flown to New Zealand in up to five plastic vials, each containing just one millilitre.

They would probably be packed in dry ice in a specialised, sealed chillybin. It would be protected and contained by polystyrene, high-impact plastic and absorbent materials.

"The shipping will comply with United Nations requirements for shipping infectious agents, which are extremely stringent," Dr Davies said.

The first shipment would probably be next month or in February. As the virus evolved, more might be imported once or twice each year.

The laboratory at Wallaceville is listed as a "physical containment 3+" facility. The highest level of containment is PC4, used for serious human diseases such as the Ebola virus.

Dr Davies said staff had to change their clothes on the way in and, after showering, on the way out. Access was via an air lock. The laboratory had lower air pressure than outside "so bugs can't get out". Air, liquids and solids leaving it were purified.

"It is really secure," he said.

At present the laboratory can only partially diagnose potential samples of the H5N1 virus or similar bird-flu strains. Results can take days when the Australian lab is tied up.