High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza: conservation implications and disease mitigation

The WOAH Pacific Wildlife Health Network (PWHN) held its 5^th meeting on 6 December 2023. The meeting was attended by representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Kiribati, USA and WOAH.

The meeting’s agenda included the following points:

• The meeting focused on the topic of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza: conservation implications and disease mitigation, selected by members of the network. The meeting featured two experts in avian health who were invited to deliver presentations outlined below:
  • Michelle Wille, from The University of Melbourne, delivered a presentation titled “Highly pathogenic avian influenza panzootic and the threat to wildlife and ecosystems”
  • Dr Rebecca Duerr, Director of Research and Veterinary Science at International Bird Rescue, gave the second presentation titled “HPAI in the USA: A wildlife rehabilitation perspective from the trenches”
• The information exchange and discussion from participants noted the importance of raising awareness about avian influenza and early wildlife disease investigations and developing, maintaining, and utilising local and regional networks to inform investigations, including but not limited to local communities and ecologists.

This meeting complements the previous meeting of the Pacific Wildlife Health Network – Wild bird mortality events and avian influenza.

The 6^th meeting for the PWHN will be scheduled in 2024 with a topic chosen from ideas previously put forward by participants.

Banner (top) photo credit: Eric Woehler

Banner (bottom) photo credit: Sonika Agarwal