Jemma Geoghegan, Nigel French: Bird flu has reached New Zealand...

Bird flu has reached New Zealand – what this means and what comes next

The first detection of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 in New Zealand marks an important milestone, but not an unexpected one.

Since the virus reached Australia last month, and as it continued its global spread, scientists and government agencies have been preparing for the possibility that it would eventually arrive here.

Chris Lynch: Avian flu containment: Dunedin farm tests negative, Hillgrove under control watch

Biosecurity New Zealand announced today that testing to date from a small free-range layer chicken farm near Dunedin has returned negative results for high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

The precautionary restricted place notice, imposed earlier this week after the deaths of some of the farm’s estimated 6,000 birds, remains in place while further testing continues. Biosecurity New Zealand’s deputy director-general Stuart Anderson said, “We’ve tested a number of samples from the Dunedin farm and if HPAI was present, we would have expected to see it in most of them, but we haven’t found any.