We, the undersigned, call on the Tasmanian Government to introduce a clear, consistent and evidence-based pathway for HPAI live testing of seabirds entering wildlife rehabilitation facilities.

We ask Tasmania to bring its approach into line with the practical disease-management measures available to wildlife rehabilitators in other Australian jurisdictions, where live wild birds are routinely tested as part of disease investigation and exclusion testing.

We call on the Tasmanian Government to:

·       Allow and support routine HPAI exclusion testing of seabirds entering rehabilitation facilities with appropriate biosecurity protocols.

·       Recognise strict quarantine and biosecurity as an alternative to unnecessary euthanasia where a clinically suitable bird has a reasonable rehabilitation prognosis but HPAI status is uncertain.

·       Ensure that decisions concerning individual seabirds take into account clinical presentation, species biology, rehabilitation prognosis and available diagnostic testing, rather than relying solely on the possibility that an individual bird may be infected.

Why this matters

HPAI is a serious and highly contagious disease of birds. Tasmania now has confirmed HPAI in wild seabirds, making biosecurity essential.

A seabird that is injured or ill for reasons unrelated to HPAI may be capable of successful rehabilitation. Where that bird has no clinical signs strongly suggestive of HPAI, appropriate diagnostic testing and quarantine can provide an evidence-based way to determine its disease status.

Routine access to testing would allow authorities and rehabilitators to make decisions based on evidence rather than uncertainty.

Other Australian jurisdictions have demonstrated that HPAI investigation and exclusion testing of wild birds can be incorporated wildlife rehabilitation systems

Tasmania should have an equally clear pathway.

Tasmania has a unique and internationally important seabird population. Its rehabilitation facilities play an important role in returning injured and compromised wildlife to the wild.

The solution to the risk posed by HPAI should therefore be better surveillance, appropriate quarantine and access to timely diagnostics, not a system in which potentially recoverable birds cannot be tested while alive.

Where a bird can be safely isolated, appropriately assessed and tested, testing should be available before an irreversible decision is made whenever scientifically and operationally appropriate.

Strong biosecurity should protect Tasmania's wildlife and, wherever possible, it should protect individual animals too.

We support evidence-based disease control.

We support responsible quarantine.

We support appropriate testing.

And we believe Tasmania's wildlife deserves all three.