Officials preparing for inevitable 'tsunami' of bird flu coming to New Zealand

DOC is trialling a bird flu vaccine on five species, including takahē. Photo: / CC 2.0

The Ministry for Primary Industries and Department of Conservation are preparing a contingency plan for an inevitable "tsunami" of bird flu coming to New Zealand.

While the Ministry for Primary Industries said the risk is still considered low, it will be monitoring whether any new cases overlap with Aotearoa's birds' migratory patterns.

The highly infectious H5N1 strain has been killing millions of animals around the world since 2021.

New Zealand has remained relatively protected from it due to its isolated location.

But the Ministry for Primary Industries' chief veterinary officer Mary van Andel told Nine to Noon the strain was now in the southern hemisphere, and had been found in birds and seals across some sub-Antarctic islands and on Antarctica's mainland.

Van Andel said the H5N1 strain was unusual and unpredictable, and New Zealand needed to be prepared and vigilant for any signs of infections.

"We are obviously very concerned," she said.

"What we've seen from this strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza is a difference in how its spreading, in the species that are being infected, and how those species have been affected."

Department of Conservation's (DOC) technical ecology adviser Bruce McKinlay said it would be very difficult to control the disease once it was in New Zealand.

DOC have been preparing messaging to promote the safety of people and birds - and to try to stop the spread.

The United States government has been working on a vaccine for the H5N1 and H7N9 strains, but said it was about 18 months away from being able to identify one that would be effective.

DOC is using a vaccine (containing inactivated or dead virus) provided and approved by MPI for use in a trial to assess its safety and efficacy on five native species, it said.

McKinlay said it had been trialled on a small number of endangered birds.

"The department has chosen to trial the effectively of a dead virus on five threatened species," he said.

Those are kakī or black stilt, takahē, kākāpō, tūturuatu or shore plover and red crowned kākāriki.

He said most species of birds in New Zealand would be at risk of the avian influenza.

McKinlay said he was worried, and said it was a "tsunami" that will be coming one way or another, but they did not know how, where and who or what species would be affected.