CANBERRA/WELLINGTON — Australia and New Zealand are bracing for the arrival of a destructive bird flu strain by tightening biosecurity at farms, testing shore birds for disease, vaccinating vulnerable species and war-gaming response plans.

Oceania is the last region of the world free of the H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b avian influenza that has killed hundreds of millions of birds and tens of thousands of mammals since appearing in Asia, Europe and Africa in 2020, littering beaches with corpses and upending the agricultural industry. 

While the region is somewhat protected by its geography — it is off the migration routes of big birds such as geese that spread infection — the virus is close, having reached Indonesia in 2022 and Antarctica last year.

Scientists and officials say there is a higher risk, particularly in Australia, of it arriving with smaller migratory shore birds during the Southern Hemisphere springtime months from September to November.

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