Aussie Finch Forum

OK so is there ever been a reason given for not allowing domestic birds in ?

You need millions of dollars to be able to do the scientific studies to find out all the information required. It is an extremely complex and difficult process.
For every new species there has to be an assessments of;
All the diseases that particular species of bird might carry,
What bird diseases are present in the exporting country?
How are each of the those diseases transmitted?
How to test for each different disease ( is there even a test?)
Do those diseases have the possibility of being transferred to other animals, especially wildlife or humans.
The list goes on and on…….. and on and on.

Very strict process, very difficult.Very expensive.
Plus no-one want to be the patsy that signs off on an import that could be the introduction the avian equivalent of foot and mouth.

The poultry industry has the money to get those studies done. Fact is, no other avian has been as intensively studied as chooks. Worldwide there are a gazillion metric tons of scientific studies on poultry diseases, their transmission, etc etc that can be used. Fingers crossed it all turns out OK.

Thanks for that Mortisha , it makes sense now why it is the way it is .

Here's a follow up story that appeared on the ABC site today: "Pigeon fancier ruffles feathers over illegal bird" today.

Theres always one isn't there ! Well 1 that's been caught so I dare say there's more idiots bringing birds up from Vic ...SO there goes NSW .

look out other states seems its gonna go national in time since people are not following rules .

The problem I've seen in Victoria is that although the ban was well known within clubs and around people on different websites a lot of small time keepers had no idea what was going on and were letting their birds out and selling/swapping. Not completely their fault they really have no idea.

We get a flock flying free over our place, would love to know where they come from.

I wouldn't be surprised if the disease was originally brought into Victoria from overseas by a human .

That is exactly what happened.
It first appeared in a breed of fancy pigeon which has never legally been imported into Australia.
If it was a legal import, this disease would never have gotten past the initial testing.
I notice on Petlink that some fancy pigeons are being offered for sale in NSW... I wouldn't be buying any at the moment.

I had a chat to the president of the Victorian Pigeon fanciers Association a while back (ran into him in the produce store) he'd been asked to identify some of the affected birds by the DSE, his words were that it was DEFINITELY an illegal import from the middle east the variety was only known there and had never been imported. He was saying that many of the fanciers here have cut down their numbers dramatically because it just wasn't possible to keep the numbers with the birds having to be contained, very sad for the responsible owners.

How are no "fly bans" enforced and how could a person find out if such a thing has been put in place in a given area?