IT is easy to imagine how it can happen. Veterinarian, flies east of the Indian Ocean at the end of the Australian winter, makes land on the island of code code in New Zealand/Wiwa Hu. She is tired of her long journey, as Petrel seeks a shelter in the green KākāPō hole: a type of endangered aircraft and is the world parrot.
If the marine bird intrude when KākāPō is moved to reproduce, the male parrot may try to mate with the smaller Petre, which mistakenly deceives it in this process.
In this case, there are two unintended victims. Petrel shelters a killer agent: H5 influenza birds. Soon after, bird flu is begins to tear the population of the parrot at risk, pushing the street – which is less than 250 individuals – to extinction.
This is a type of scenario that the New Zealand preservation has been thinking before the arrival of the spring migration season – as they have done over the past two years since a very nurse strain of bird flu known as H5N1 has begun to combustion over global wildlife, which raised the largest sudden decrease in the number of birds in the world for decades.
Tens of millions of wild birds surrendered to H5 around the world, but Oceania has so far managed to remove the virus – buying time for New Zealand to add another weapon to its arsenal before thousands of birds from remote beaches arrive.
In August, the country’s Ministry of Conservation announced the completion of a global research experience that shows that some of its rarest birds can be vaccinated successfully and safely against bird flu.
This effort is the latest in a global batch to protect wildlife – not just cultivated poultry – from the virus, which also caused exciting mass deaths between elephants seal and seal of fur and sea birds around the world. For those species that already swing on the edge of extinction, the vaccination can be from Gamechanger.
New Zealand is a home of approximately 100 species of birds that are not anywhere else in the world. Over the past year, the administration has vaccinated up to 10 captive birds of five species that left 500 people or less – KākāPō, Takahē, Kakī (Black Stilt), TūTuruatuu (Shore Plover) and one type of Kākāriki.
The program, using the H5N3 poultry vaccine, is the first to vaccinate many species at the same time. After receiving two doses, a month after the licensed poultry vaccine, the scientists found that four types built a strong response to the antibodies to the virus that lasted for at least six months.
“These types depend on captive education,” says Kate McKenz, a veterinarian for wildlife and major science consultant in the department. The vaccination can protect the basic reproductive groups in the birds used to store the wild population on the edge of the survival knife, as well as the inhabitants of KākāPō orbits on the outer islands.
The next step is to build a spreading strategy before spring deportation, when traveling to marine birds in the virus. “You can not just run around the forest, arrest and lift everything,” McKenz says. “You must have a carefully planned program in place.”
Other countries see the attempt closely. Australia is in close contact with New Zealand officials about the results of the vaccine, and manages its experiences using suspended species-animals similar to endangered species but they were not at risk-according to Vikona Fraser, Australian Commissioner for threatened species.
“There is increasing concern now because the migratory bird season is on the doorstep of our door only,” she says. Tens of millions of birds are expected to reach Australia in the coming weeks.
The Australian government announced last year that it would allocate $ 100 million (48 million pounds) to prepare for bird flu, including $ 2.8 million specifically to protect the captive population from threatened species.
“Spending this additional time for our region to understand what external effects, and prepare better for Australian species, was very important,” says Fraser. “We expect that it is not a matter of whether, but when the bird flu reaches Australia, because now after it is circulated in the Antarctica, we are mainly surrounded.”
The vaccination is only a small part of the strategy. The country focuses on planning species that are especially exposed to bird influenza, such as the original Australian lion and the Tasmani Satan, which is a threatened corridor that can feed on the bodies of infected birds.
She says promoting the public health of the land population to help them to endure the access of influenza in the end is the priority.
“The vaccines can be stressful for wild animals and cannot be possible like taking other measures such as improving their habitats,” says Fraser.
Australia’s policy of vaccination is frequented by wider global opinion. It is rare, although some programs were established to fortify koala against chlamydia; Shout Ethiopian wolves Against Distemper dogs. And the development of a West Nile vaccine To protect endangered birds in Hawaii.
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Note the World Animal Health Organization in 2023 Committee report In the emergency vaccination of wild birds it will be difficult to vaccinate the wild population against bird influenza with strategies currently available.
“There are a lot of logistical services that play their role,” says Christine Schuller, an environmentalist in wildlife disease at Cornell University in New York. Picking wild animals and restoring them for multiple doses is difficult and costly, especially for species that have a short age.
However, when 21 California Contestors of the H5 bird influenza died in 2023, the United States government raced to intervene. About $ 20 million (15 million pounds) has been spent in federal financing and the states have been spent on maintaining the endangered eagle so far, making it one of the most conservative projects in the United States in history.
Scientists first conducted H5N1 poultry vaccine experiments on 20 black eagles and 20 captive counters. “We knew this would have an international importance – people were watching it,” says Todd Katzner, a biologist in wildlife in the American survey of geological survey and research coordinator for the Condor Restore program. “It was the first controlled experience with wild types.”
After finding that the vaccine resulted Successful antibodies ’response with no harmful effectsThe government agreed to the emergency vaccination campaign. By October 2024, they were vaccinated 207 ConfirmsIncluding 134 “free” birds.
The additional challenge is that the trial vaccine used to overcome Condor was based on the 2014 bird of bird influenza. He says: “When they build human vaccines, there is a large economic driver to encourage them to stay in constant knowledge,” he says. “There is no driver similar to bird flu vaccines, so you end up with old vaccines.”
Viruses develop over time, which means that vaccines can become less useful with the virus change. However, “the general feeling was that the vaccinated bird would get better protection than an unacceptable bird,” says Katzner.
Some scientists express reservations about wild animals. They say viruses can develop quickly.
“The great interest in wildlife is an incomplete vaccination that would actually lead to more viral development,” says Schuller. “Especially for many of these birds, they may be exposed to multiple influenza viruses of birds. So by entering the vaccination process there, do they actually have the ability to solve those that are more causing pathogens – those that may be worse?”
New Zealand wildlife authorities are planning to vaccinate captive reproductive groups for endangered bird species, in addition to their offspring, which have been submitted to wild regulatory approval to use emergency for the vaccine. The timing of the program depends on the evaluation of when the virus is likely to reach the country’s beaches.
“If we start very early, we will lose this counter -body because it will begin to disappear,” McKenz says. “But if we start too late, we have missed the decisive moment.”