Australia's two way wildlife traffic

[GregH]

Care to listen to Radio National's expose on the exotic bird trade aired on November 18 - here's the link. There is also a related story on the ABC's news site and an even better review in Australian Geographic published in 2011. Apparently even if our wildlife authorities catch you they aren't prosecuting, veterinarians are detecting exotic diseases but are failing to enforce quarantine and never seeing the disease again, so what's going wrong? If there was regulated trade rather than ineffective bans then this cruel trade would virtually disappear however there remains another problem. Remember when they did import parrots in the 1990s they failed to detect diseases in the birds imported. Training in exotic avian diseases without ever observing them directly is ineffective training. Does the Commonwealth provide travel schoarships for vets to get the sort of experience we need to ensure Australia's biosecurity?

I am not condoning or promoting illegal wildlife trafficking but to put it in perspective Australia's wildlife and population are all in more danger from the thousands of people that enter Australia legally every day than from any risk posed by the hand-full of birds that make it in each year. Tell me if I'm wrong.

[Myzomela]

Hi Greg,

Just to clear a few facts, not BS comments made by pen-pushers & journalists.

All the exotic diseases seen in parrots since the import days can be traced back to birds coming through the quarantine facility at Spotswood.

This is despite the avian vets telling the authorities that both Macaw Wasting Disease/PDD and Internal Papillomatous Disease were serious issues overseas.

The problem was that at that stage NOBODY in the world new what caused these diseases- we could just describe their clinical courses and devastating effects. Therefore, there were no tests for these diseases available.
Because the causative organisms were not identified (and because they did not pose a direct threat to the poultry industry, I suspect) the government in its wisdom decided to allow importation anyway.

The first case of PDD was diagnosed in a greenwing macaw which came straight out of quarantine !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was no enforceable quarantine of infected premises because these diseases were not legislated against ie they were not listed under the notifiable exotic diseases.

This put avian vets in the untenable position of trying to persuade owners of affected birds of imposing their own quarantine.

As you can imagine, many owners just disappeared and many people with suspect birds were fearful of taking their birds to the vet.

So the blame lies fairly and squarely in the hands of the govt authorities of the day.

It seems that when you actually want to import something, they feed you the whole "risk analysis" line. Yet on the other hand, they ignore some major evidence of existing diseases overseas when it doesn't suit them.

[jusdeb]

The Govt would rather spend time and recourses on other imports equally capable of bringing in disease of the 2 legged and human variety
We have serious issues with PFBD here that need urgent attention too .... just a quick soap box moment to start the day,.

[wagga]

Just listen to Radio National's exposure on the exotic bird trade, in particular parrots. At the end I felt that it was thought provoking asking lots of questions etc and yet answered nothing. Statistics quoted the large amount of smugglers/mules carrying 50 + eggs on their bodies entering Australia per week I found this disturbing.

Have a look at that idiot photographed with 2 live pigeons stuffed down his shorts.

It seems the parrots themselves only felt , death/euthanasia, the full effect of the law.

[TomDeGraaff]

I can'tfind the interview to check but I always suspect that Customs wheel out old photos with revamped stories to overstate the bird smuggling business. Perhaps other wildlife may be at risk and I'm sure our reptiles would be popular overseas. The cynic in me asks when the budget request season starts for the departments who compete for money from their political overseers. Of course, I could be wrong, maybe, I suppose........

[GregH]

I know that hindsight isn't especially useful in this analysis but we should expect the government authorities to have a more more considered approach to risk analysis. Perhaps it's a case of money talks more than wanting to listen to the tedious details from someone who might actually know something. When I worked for the Australian Winter cereals Collection, we imported grain for researchers and breeders all the time BUT we never directly released seed instead we grew it through a generation and observed it for diseases. This meant that the process was slow and expensive but it sounds a better approach than what I know is used for the importation of horses, dogs and cats. Certainly much more care is taken with poultry now (discussed previously in an importation topic) than was done with the parrots. Prohibition is turning those that desire these animals into criminals and driving the cruel methods they employ to achieve this. Again I don't condone what smugglers are doing but there must be a better way.

Try sticking people on Naru for two years while they are processed for entry into Australia and everyone gets upset but at least most diseases will be detected before they get onto the continent. I doubt the tourist industry would survive my approach!

[Mortisha]

Quarantine only works now for the protection of agricultural industries. The Equine Influenza outbreak cost tens of millions to control and the governments decided to go to a system where they can recover the $$$ in the future via industry levies.

No one is going to outlay that kind money for the protection of wild birds and animals in the future. Our courts don’t find it that serious a crime even when they are caught.

[Tiaris]

Just clarifying what Myzo said. Effectively, there is absolutely no evidence that illegal bird smuggling has introduced any avian diseases to Australia at all. All known avian diseases present in Australia were either already here or introduced via the legal importations in the early 1990s which were fully supervised/managed by the quarantine authorities.

Myzo didn't say this bit, but my own tilt on this matter is that every reference to smuggling I've seen or heard in non-avicultural media has grossly exagerated the scale, frequency and effect of the illegal trade with absolutely no basis for the claims other than the speculative imagination of those making the claims.

[Tiaris]

Just noted I misquoted: Myzo's references were to parrots. Sorry.

[Myzomela]

That's correct Tiaris. I guess it's because most parrot smuggling these days seems to involve eggs, not live birds. Therefore, any diseases encountered tend to never make it out of the nursery.

The recent paramyxovirus outbreak in pigeons, however, HAS been linked to live domestic pigeons smuggled into Australia- and they do at least have access to legal importation.

Go figure!