Many waste facilities in Otago are not up to standard to receive animals affected with bird flu. The Otago Regional Council will take the lead in the region’s response to the bird flu outbreak but it will be up to individual landowners to dispose of flu-infected birds. The regional council this week had a workshop about its role and response to the H5N1 strain of bird flu arriving in the country. Two birds were discovered with bird flu in the North Island last month and there have been no new results since July 17. Council environment delivery general manager Jo Gilroy said at the workshop the regional council would be the co-ordinator for the region. It would work with regional councils and deliver information. Council biosecurity team leader Robert Win said that would involve co-ordinating the Otago message around preparedness and creating a consistent message. But the council would not be involved in the operational response. "We won’t be going out and picking up dead birds . . . private landowners will be responsible for carcass disposal,” he said. The specific issue for Otago was that the region was home to nationally and culturally significant bird populations. A list has been prepared of all poultry farms in Otago and there would be a roadshow in Dunedin next Wednesday held by the Egg Producers Federation. Council environmental project co-ordinator Sinead Keogh said the council would be responsible for its own land such as floodbanks but the Ministry of Primary Industries would be the lead agency for most advice. She said it was important for people involved in any response to be well prepared and have the right equipment. The key public message was that if bird flu was discovered in Otago, the regional council and territorial authorities may implement public communications and introduce access restrictions to protect people and wildlife. Council deputy chairman Kevin Malcolm raised concerns about the disposal of dead birds at waste stations. Mr Win said many of the waste management facilities in the region did not have the capability to receive dead birds and to be able to process them properly or dispose of other material connected to the dead birds. “We don’t want dead birds turning up at a waste management facility and then creating a second contamination with a lot of scavengers and seagulls flying around,” he said. "There is a two-phased approach to this — accept them and then also mitigate them when they turn up at these facilities.” Mr Malcom said that, from talking to people in the poultry industry, there were some quite draconian measures to be brought in should an outbreak occur, which were out of step with what the rest of the world was doing. Ms Gilroy said it was a national-led response and the council could not do any more than it was asked.
