Andrew Hoggard: Government measures ramp up as second bird flu case confirmed

A native hawk in the Wairarapa has been confirmed as the second case of bird flu in New Zealand.

The animal was sent to a wildlife hospital after suffering a head injury where the disease was found upon routine testing. 

Minister of Biosecurity Andrew Hoggard told Heather du Plessis-Allan that they are working with farmers in the region. 

"From an MPI perspective, we are touching base with all, I think there's about 13, egg producers or poultry producers in the Wairarapa. So, teams getting in contact with all of them just to check, are they confident in their biosecurity measures they've got?"

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have got our second confirmed case of bird flu.
This time it has been found in a native hawk
and the wided upper The government's now stepping up its
testing and its vaccination response. And Andrew Hoggart as the
biosecurity minister who's with us high Andrew good after, were
you expecting a case so quickly?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Probably not, but we're expecting more cases and you know,
for it to move to some of our native bird
species as well. But yeah, I wasn't expecting like the
very next day.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, So how do we think this hawk actually got infected?
Is it most likely eating an infected bird?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
That would be a pretty good guess, I would imagine.
I don't have an obvious exact answer, but that would
be the most likely scenario. I see a lot of
hawks flying around my farm and they're usually getting the
remains of possums and other things that have been hit
by cars, So that would be a really good summary.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
And are what are officials telling you about how widespread
they think it is now?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, no one. I mean this is the point of
the testing, of making sure we're doing the tests and
getting the public reports and so we can actually build
up a picture. So I mean The reality is what
we know right now is that we've had two detections
one and Tony one and the wire rapper. They're likely
to be more out there, but you know, we don't
know for certain, and when we do the testing, we

(01:24):
will find out the answer, you know, as we get
more and more reports coming, we'll find where there other
cases are.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
So what are you guys doing now? So you're vaccinating
more birds, are you well?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
So Doker carrying on with their vaccination program of those
critically engaging birds. From an MPI perspective, we are touching
base with all. I think there's about thirteen egg produces
and poultry producers in the war rapper, So teams getting
in contact with all of them, just to check are

(01:58):
they confident they're by security measures they've got, do they
need any advice or any assistance. So those are the
key things we're doing. And obviously, you know we're going
to get more reports from the public of hey we've
seen a bird here, and so we're up in the
number of people we've got more than the expectation that
we're going to be required to do more and more testing.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
By the way, what are you going to do with
backyard poultry.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
So there is good advice on the MPI website make
people kill their birds? No, no, look, we're not going
to make anyone do anything. We're putting the advice and
the information out there. You know, people are adults, they
can make decisions for themselves. We'll give them the advice
and suggestions and solutions how people want to you know,

(02:48):
for us in our place, we've got a few chickens.
They'll be locked inside their shed and hopefully they stay safe.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Okay, where was this hawk found by.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
The way Carleton on a farm? Uncertain? All I know
is that had suffered a head injury, sent to Messi
University Hospital or Wildlife hospital and there as part of
the routine surveillance we've got going on, they did a

(03:19):
swab of it just to check for diseases in it
popped up with H five. But you know, it went
in for head injuries, not because it looked like bird flury.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
I mean that probably suggests it's way more wisebready, doesn't
it because it didn't go in for the bird.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Flu Well, I won't jump into making guesses on this.
I did, by the way, it was euthanized because of
that head injury.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Fair enough, Hey Andrew, thanks very much man, really appreciate
Today there's Andrew Hoggard by a security minister. Eleven past five.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
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