Community & Business
8 July, 2026
Avian Influenza focus of talk
RECENT media reports of avian influenza reaching Australian shores will make a free talk in Malanda on Thursday night even more relevant.
BirdLife Northern Queensland is hosting the public talk by Australian waterfowl expert and BLNQ member Dr David Roshier.
His talk coincides with reports of avian influenza found on the Australian Heard Island World Heritage site north of Antarctica and, more recently, the first mainland records of a highly pathogenic strain in Western Australia and South Australia.
Until now, Australia had been the only continent free of this deadly strain of the virus, H5N1, which had spread to all other continents since the mid-1990s.
Dr Roshier’s talk, “Bird movements and the ecology of avian influenza in Australia”, will present data on the occurrence of avian influenza in Australian bird populations and the developing understanding of bird movements from tracking studies using satellite tags.
Avian influenza, in some forms, is a serious threat to wild bird populations, the poultry industry and human health.
While the ecology and epidemiology of avian influenza were relatively well understood in Northern Temperate regions, they were less well understood in Australia’s environment, partly because knowledge of bird movement and migration was incomplete and only recent, and pathways of infection and spillover were poorly understood.
The free talk will be held at the Malanda Hotel on Thursday from 7.30pm.
