Australia commits $64 mln to protect against looming bird flu threat
SYDNEY, Oct 13 (Reuters) -Australia's government said on Sunday it would spend an extra A$95 million ($64.13 million) to protect against a destructive bird flu strain that has spread through bird and mammal populations worldwide but not yet reached the island continent.
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.
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Julie Collins said the new funding was additional to more than A$1 billion being spent to bolster the country's biosecurity.
“This strain of avian influenza presents a real and significant threat to Australia’s agriculture sector," Collins said in a statement.
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 of it arriving in Australia with smaller migratory shore birds in the Southern Hemisphere spring, from September to November.
Earlier this year, Australia dealt with three parallel outbreaks of bird flu but each involved a different strain of the virus, none of which was the H5N1 type.
"Impacts experienced this year from outbreaks of other strains of high pathogenicity avian influenza highlight the importance of continued investment in national preparedness," Collins said.
($1 = 1.4815 Australian dollars)
Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Michael Perry
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
