Kiwi and Kakapo at risk from bird flu

The kiwi and kakapo are two of the species that would be most at threat from a bird flu outbreak reaching this country.

The species are among about a dozen the Department of Conservation (DOC) believes would be at the greatest risk from an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza and plans are under way to vaccinate as much of the population as possible.

The strain has killed birds throughout east Asia since 2003 and has more recently hit Turkey, with major fears the disease will mutate into a version able to spread quickly between humans, accelerating the spread of the virus.

Kate McInnes, DOC's veterinarian for threatened species, said that kiwi were also among the group of New Zealand species most likely to be at severe risk from bird flu.

"The overseas data suggests that they might be in the higher priority list," she said.

Ms McInnes said ratites, or flightless birds, such as ostriches and emus "have definitely been found to be susceptible to bird flu strains so they would definitely be one that we would be looking at very closely as to which ones we vaccinate".

Some of the others were whio (blue duck), Campbell Island teal, brown teal, weka, and banded rail.

"Then you've got species like your black robin or your kakapo, which are highly inbred and therefore don't have a lot of genetic diversity so that generally means they are less able to fight off a new disease."

She said the main line of protection for native birds here would be vaccination.

DOC was formulating a plan, along with bird flu response leaders the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Health, to decide what type of vaccine to use and which birds to prioritise.

"One of the problems is how do you catch all the wild birds in New Zealand?" Ms McInnes said.

But she said it was not believed birds would be at risk from humans in the event of a human pandemic as research suggested once the virus mutated for human transference, it wouldn't easily infect birds.

She said DOC had a team of three working on the bird flu issue and was holding a workshop next Friday to consider the issue.

Culling of native birds was "not considered a good option for control", Ms McInnes said.

One of the major issues was how to care for captive bird populations if the rangers were themselves unable to go to work because of illness.

Forest and Bird, on the other hand, does believe the biggest risk to native birds would be from people.

The organisation believes in the event of an outbreak, offshore bird sanctuaries like Kapiti Island might need to be cut off and left to survive for up to several years, Forest and Bird conservation manager Kevin Hackwell said.

"We could try very hard to make sure that it doesn't get to those islands," he said.

"That might mean that especially if it was proven that humans were transferring it, you could isolate those islands for a while and make sure nobody goes to them, or only people who go to the islands are shown not to have the flu or to carry it."

Even the island management would have to be included.

"You might say that nobody can go on to Kapiti for the duration of the epidemic and maybe it might be several years before anybody can," Mr Hackwell said.

- NZPA