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Andrew Hoggard: Biosecurity Minister on preparing farms for a bird flu outbreak
Published 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Description
Just because New Zealand hasn't recorded more bird flu cases, doesn't mean it's time to relax.
Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard has announced legislation requiring anyone with more than 100 birds, to have a bird flu prevention and response plan.
This country has two confirmed cases of the globally circulating H5N1 strain, in Petone and Carterton.
Hoggard told Andrew Dickens MPI has investigated around one-thousand notifications, with no further cases found.
But he says if infected birds are reaching New Zealand, they're probably also reaching Antarctica, meaning more cases could arrive in spring.
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