Be prepared, bird flu could be on the way to Australia

That was the message from NSW chief veterinary officer Jo Coombe when she spoke at the NSW Farm Writers lunch in Sydney last Friday.

While it is yet to reach Australia, Ms Coombe said many people believed it was a matter of when, not if, HPAI became a local problem.

"From our perspective, the news has been made because of the dairy cows in the US," she said.

"Probably more concerning for us are the detections in Antarctica, in the aquatic mammals and also the birds down there because they are on the migratory pathway that could come to Australia.

"All the modelling is indicating that it's likely to be those migratory birds that bring it in.

"I'm no virologist, but the clade that is currently concerning everyone is very persistent in wild birds, in migratory birds.

"So there's been modelling that it could come up from Antarctica or it could come down from South East Asia."

Ms Coombe said preparedness was important to containing any biosecurity outbreak.

"The crux of biosecurity on an enterprise is you ask the questions, can I minimise the risk of disease getting onto my farm? Can I minimise the risk of disease spreading within my farm and can I minimise the risk of disease leaving my farm?" she said.

Ms Coombe said controlling the feral animal situation was a difficult one.

"In the case of poultry, when you say feral animals, we are talking things like wild birds," she said.

"I doubt anyone's going to sign-off on controlling wild birds. It's not going to be feasible and the poultry industry are aware of this.

"So it's about doubling down on how you actually protect your poultry from the external sources of disease.

"Enterprises that are free range are going to have more difficulty doing that, but these are all the kinds of things we're discussing with industry."