Alerts

Effective 21st December 2015

Australia has been notified of a confirmed outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the United States of America.

HPAI is not present in Australia and the introduction of this disease would have serious economic consequences for Australia’s avian industry.  HPAI virus can infect many species of domestic and wild birds.

As a result of the outbreak, a number of commodities derived from HPAI susceptible species from the United States of America will no longer meet current import requirements and therefore will be considered to pose a quarantine risk.

The Department of Agriculture is undertaking measures to reduce the risk of introducing HPAI into Australia. For commodities of concern, the application of these measures will be based on the first known date of suspicion of the occurrence of HPAI in the United States of America. These changes will affect all products containing material derived from avians of the United States of America origin which were processed or manufactured on or after 21 December 2015, with the exception of products for which there are existing conditions to manage the HPAI risk. High risk items will not be permitted entry and variation of import permits will be made. For other risk items, a case by case assessment and subsequent import permit variation may be required where there are existing conditions to manage the HPAI quarantine risk from the United States of America.

These measures are consistent with management measures for avian derived products manufactured in HPAI affected countries.