cubans at a dealer

[arthur]

strict government regulation/monitoring of ever one's birds to ensure that critical numbers are maintained

They are not interested . . and 'amen' to that IMHO . . we don't need any further regulation

we could allow imports

'They' not 'we' . . but importation will probably never happen again . . through no fault of birdkeepers

The only pressure that will prevent export of exotics from our shores will be economic . . Only when birds such as Cubans reach a level of scarcity here, that will inflate their prices to overseas price levels, will their export stop

[west finch]

Sadly Arthur you hit the nail on the head ( so to speak )

[Myzomela]

I believe that if the person involved in exporting the cardinals & other rare finches had their time again or realised the full impact that their actions would have, that they would not have gone ahead.

I'm not so sure about others who are currently involved with our more common species.

Greg, you are right that these birds were all in a perilous position in Australian aviculture, but with improvements in diets since that time & the longevity of cardinals in particular that these birds would still be viable, if still rare, today.

The whole import thing comes down to political- and therefore economic-pressure as Arthur has said. There just isn't enough political pressure to get it off the ground and to be frank I doubt there would be enough people prepared to put in the thousands of dollars required to fund it, even if we could access enough aviary bred finches from approved countries to make importation viable.

I believe there are moves afoot to reignite parrot importation but whether this becomes a reality or remains a pipe dream remains to be seen.

[arthur]

After the 'dog's breakfast' that was NEBRS . .

and its abandonment that wasn't an abandonment . .

and its follow-up that wasn't a follow-up . .

I doubt that any further importation of parrots would seriously be considered by the feds

But . . having said that, the importation that occurred in the early 90's was also a 'bolt out of the blue'

[Myzomela]

Well summarised Arthur!
We can only keep or fingers crossed that something positive does occur.

When you consider that AQIS's role is now about "risk management" not disease prevention (thanks largely to global trading agreements meaning we have to import things from other countries so that they will buy our exports-even if we don't need them), I find it really hard for them to justify not allowing importation again.

After all, they were the very same people in the early 1990s who didn't recognise Macaw Wasting Disease (PDD) or Internal Papillomatosis Disease as significant risks in parrots because at that time no one had identified their causes even though the US & European avian vets were certain it was infectious in origin. In their wisdom they agreed to let importation from facilities with a history of these diseases and guess what happened? PDD and IPD were both diagnosed in imported parrots post quarantine release- what a surprise?
We now know that both have viral disease involvement.
I bet if there was even a suggestion that these diseases might be transferred to poultry that they would never had let any parrots into Australia.

Therefore it is really frustrating when they bang on about "risk assessment"- only when it suits them, it seems.

[arthur]

In their wisdom they agreed to let importation from facilities with a history of these diseases and guess what happened? PDD and IPD were both diagnosed in imported parrots post quarantine release- what a surprise?

.

If you would believe AQIS these diseases only came in with smuggled birds

These people can justify the unjustifiable