What can bird owners do to minimise the risk of avian influenza?
All bird owners need to be vigilant. Owners of backyard poultry or free-range poultry should be especially cautious. Bird owners need to implement on-farm/backyard biosecurity measures to prevent wild birds gaining access to the same food and water supplies as poultry: • Fit nets to poultry sheds to keep wild birds out. • Erect pens to keep domesticated poultry away from wild birds. • Keep domestic waterfowl separate from poultry where the waterfowl have access to the same water as wild waterbirds. • Prevent domesticated poultry from having access to open ponds, lakes or creeks or other watercourses. • Keep wild birds off farm dams with netting or other measures where practical. Contaminated water (i.e. water that wild waterbirds have had access to) is one of the most likely routes of infection for poultry. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that water supplied to poultry should be: • from a treated (chlorinated) mains water supply • from a bore that produces water of sufficient qua
