The Future of Biosecurity in Australia
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Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 1, 2019, pp. 121–128. ISSN 0035-9173/19/010121-08 The future of biosecurity in Australia Eddie Holmes Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, Charles Perkins Centre, and School of Life & Environmental Sciences and Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney E-mail: [email protected] was assigned the task of talking about If it had come here, who knows what would I biosecurity, and biosecurity, it turns out, have happened. SARS was a major warning is an extremely broad term that can be used shock. in a wide variety of ways so I’m just going to At the same time as these human out- use it in the context of, as Brian notes, infec- breaks, our cultural systems face a very major tious diseases, particularly on what Australia threat too. Exactly at the same time as SARS, may need to do to prevent and respond to in the Netherlands there was an outbreak future epidemics. (which I’m sure you haven’t heard about) of H7N7 influenza, a very nasty, highly viru- SARS and other ’flu-like respiratory lent H7 strain of avian ’flu. This was com- viruses pletely concurrent with the SARS outbreak. If you wind the clock back just a few years, The Dutch authorities were so scared about you all remember the SARS outbreak of this that they basically went through a mass 2003. The numbers of people infected were culling operation of chickens in Holland to not actually that great: overall globally about eliminate the virus. They killed 30 million 8,000 people were infected. To put SARS in chickens: a third of the Dutch poultry indus- context, ’flu may infect millions every year, try was just wiped out in one go. They basi- so 8,000 infected and about 800 died is not cally took these chicken barns, taped them large, but even so it cost about $40 billion up and gassed them, they were so worried globally. Nonetheless, the consensus is that about this virus. 89 people were infected by we dodged a bullet with SARS. SARS is that virus, basically people involved in the extremely dangerous and if the world hadn’t control, and one person died. pulled together as well as it did, it could have These respiratory viruses circle the world been a very, very scary epidemic because the and they will hit Australia. We will get them, mortality rate is 10 per cent, which is high. we are at risk from ’flu — I’ll keep coming Australia in fact got very lucky. What back to ’flu. I sleep pretty well at night but if happened in 2003 is that a businessman there’s one thing that I do get worried about from Guangdong got ill. He went to Hong slightly it is still influenza. because it’s a silent Kong, where he basically vomited all over carrier. You don’t know you’re infected. By his hotel floor. People on that floor went to the time you’ve got off the train the bus, or the airport, they went to Singapore and from the plane, you’ve infected somebody else. It Singapore they flew to Canada and to Ger- is kind of a nerve-racking thing. So Australia many. No-one got on a flight to Sydney or is often exposed to ’flu. Every year or so our Melbourne, but that could have happened. country experiences an exotic ’flu strain that 121 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holmes — The future of biosecurity in Australia comes in that infects our poultry industry of the strains of ’flu that have hit Australia or our pig industry and of course the more in the last decade or so. Luckily these are all centralised those industries are, the easier low pantothenic strains, which means they’re it is for a pathogen to spread quickly and quite mild, there’s no real mass culling. cause a big outbreak. The figure shows some Exotic Influenza Virus Outbreaks in Australia No highly pathogenic avian influenza virus identified to date Northern Territory Queensland Western Swine influenza Australia A(H1N2) August 2012 South Australia New South Wales Swine influenza A(H1N2) & H3N2 outbreak Avian influenza July 2012 A(H10N7) outbreak; Victoria 2 people infected March 2010 Low pathogenicity H7 outbreaks To date, no very, very virulent strain of ’flu ecologically diverse: about 10 per cent of has hit Australia. We have been very lucky, the world’s bird populations live in Australia. and the H7N7 strain hasn’t got here yet, but We are on a flight path that birds take every it could happen. We have very good biosecu- year and birds will fly north and south. The rity, we have very strong quarantine laws, but arrow in the figure is a flyway, the Australian they may not stop the incursion. One reason east-Asian flyway, and birds will fly up and for this, of course, is that the ’flu virus is basi- down that as they migrate every year. cally a bird virus, and Australia is remarkably Avian Influenza and Bird Migration Charadriiformes (e.g. waders, shorebirds) • Trans-hemispheric migration twice a year between Arctic to Australia • Most likely to encounter high path viruses in Asia • Most likely wild bird route into Australia Anseriformes (e.g. ducks, swans, geese) In Australia ducks are nomadic – NOT migratory • Australian anseriformes do not migrate to Asia • Considered reservoir for influenza 122 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holmes — The future of biosecurity in Australia Globally, two sets of birds carry ’flu viruses. Plant pathogens One is Anseriformes (kind of duck-like It’s not just animals and humans, plants things). They’re not migratory, they’re res- and our agricultural systems are also under ervoirs for the virus. If you go and sample a threat from exotic pathogens. The figure duck in the wild, about 10 per cent of them from Robert Park shows work on stem rust, carry ’flu naturally, so they’re reservoirs. The which are fungi. Robert Park is the global other is Charadriiformes (waterbirds, shore- expert on this but these fungi come in every birds, waders) that take these long migra- so often and they can cause very nasty out- tions from Asia into Australia, actually from breaks on cereal crops. Every few years there’s Antarctica to Asia, and they can bring a virus an exotic incursion of these stem rusts into with them. So we are continually exposed to Australia that can cause really profound eco- these strains and they could cause an out- nomic damage to our agriculture industries. break. So that’s ’flu. There’s also myrtle rust, you may have heard Mosquito-borne diseases of, that’s come in and that’s now spreading on eucalyptus plants and other Myrtaceous But it’s not just ’flu — you’re getting scared plants across the eastern seaboard too — now — that’s a worry. We’ve also had an another fungal pathogen. increase in the number of mosquito-borne diseases and, as climate change continues, Australia’s biodiversity crisis as places get hotter and warmer, there will These pathogens are going to arrive, it is be more mosquitoes and there will be more inevitable. So that’s going to impact on mosquito-borne disease. It will happen. It’s many aspects of the way we live in Australia, inevitable. For example, in Australia we have including the biodiversity in this country. two or three native mosquito viruses that Australia has an absolutely miserable record cause human illness: Ross River and Barmah in dealing with biodiversity. Australia’s classi- Forest, and there are a few thousand cases fied as a megadiverse country: we have more every year. Occasionally people get a very species of plants and animals than any other serious thing called Murray Valley encepha- developed country. Most of what we have litis, that can be fatal. Northern Queensland here is also endemic. Some numbers you see has had historic outbreaks of dengue, which in the figure: 87 per cent of the mammals in again occasionally can be fixed. Not so much, Australia are endemic and 90 per cent of the it’s controlled there now but it can happen. reptiles are endemic. As I mentioned earlier, There are also outbreaks of mosquito- 10 per cent of bird species globally are found borne diseases in cattle and livestock that are in Australia, yet our extinction rate for those important to farmers and on our doorstep, animals is terrible. It’s actually the highest of in the region, we have viruses like Chikungu- any country. So, 30 native mammals have nya and Zika, which are just off the coast of gone extinct since Europeans arrived. That’s northern Australia, which could easily cause one in three extinctions of mammals globally incursions. That’s a threat to us. have occurred in this country in the last 400 years. That’s partly human activity and it’s also in part because pathogens come in and we bring them in on exotic systems. 123 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holmes — The future of biosecurity in Australia Australia’s Biodiversity Crisis • Australia is “megadiverse” and home to more species than any other developed country. European Rabbits • Most of Australia’s wildlife is found nowhere else: 87% of mammal species and 93% of reptiles are found only in Australia. • Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world: 30 native mammals have become extinct since European settlement: 1 out of 3 mammal extinctions in the last 400 years have occurred in Australia.