58122 (2024). Lan Pham to the Minister for Biosecurity

58122 (2024). Lan Pham to the Minister for Biosecurity: What work, if any, is underway to improve New Zealand’s surveillance and response capabilities for avian flu specifically?

Hon Andrew Hoggard: Surveillance of HPAI is occurring to provide a timely and accurate detection of the disease. The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is working on increasing awareness of HPAI clinical signs amongst the general public and various specialists to increase the chances of HPAI early detection, and to encourage reporting of any suspected avian influenza cases through MPI’s 0800 number. Every notification is triaged by incursion investigation veterinarians, and where needed, samples are collected and tested. Notifications are coming from all over New Zealand and for all types of birds, including migratory birds. None of these have been positive for HPAI. There is also an annual sampling and testing programme at sites where migratory and non-migratory waterfowl congregate run in collaboration with Fish & Game New Zealand; monitoring and awareness with New Zealand's wildlife hospitals, poultry industry groups, veterinarians, and wildlife rehabilitation centres; and we are working with the Department of Conservation (DOC) on any suspected exotic diseases in wild bird populations and encouraging reporting of any suspected cases to MPI’s exotic pest and disease hotline. Additionally, from September 2023 to September 2024, MPI contracted Dunedin Wildlife Hospital to collect swabs from inpatient migratory birds. None of the samples were positive for HPAI. The Department of Conservation and Otago University also sampled over 1000 birds from subantarctic islands in 2023/2024 and no HPAI was detected in these birds. MPI personnel have also recently visited Australia and the UK to learn from those two countries regarding their recent HPAI responses and improve our response capabilities.