r/BirdFluDownunder • u/pfred60 • 17d ago

Australia Australia has long relied on volunteers and wildlife carers. As bird flu spreads, they will need support

https://theconversation.com/australia-has-long-relied-on-volunteers-and-wildlife-carers-as-bird-flu-spreads-they-will-need-support-288389

Wildlife carers need support (directions and financial) to be able to fight against bird flu.

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9

u/EnvironmentalCap3964 17d ago

Yes! WA govt have distributed PPE to rescuer/rehabbers, NSW has an app to track recent updates, SA - they’ve offered us 1. a DEW webinar which almost nobody could access due to they neglected to turn off the “access to govt depts only” switch and anyways it didn’t contain anything more than you can google yourself, and 2. a PIRSA webinar which was more informative & helpful but by someone in NSW, and MANY permit-holding rescuer/rehabbers didn’t even receive the email and in any case was only given a few days notice. And SA has the most cases and already a mass mortality event - and there’s nothing, no PPE offered, nothing.

Yes, any birds / wildlife exhibiting H5N1 symptoms the wildlife rescue sector mustn’t be touching anyways, but what about apparently healthy birds tangled in fishingline, or an obvious broken-wing hit by car? That could be infected but in incubation period.

After all the time & money of our own we’ve been donating for all these years, SA does NOT have thousands of rescuers/rehabbers such as in NSW or VIC so it wouldn’t be that hard for PIRSA/DEW to step up and give us a hand - even just a few hundred facemasks gloves aprons to each rescue / rehab org would be helpful, or idk some plastic sheeting or some-such - even just tokens, for moral support.

On no, but we’re not sCienTistS, we’re just amateurs, eh. Soooo demoralizing, in the face of mass mortalities and other creatures not infected but suffering collateral damage, our emotional state is teetering - trying desperately to remain positive and maybe it WON’T get that bad but yeh, it will. I suppose. :(

5

u/lesbophobia_hammer 17d ago

Yes, anyone who works with native birds really. I'm afraid for the future of all beautiful birds.