Photo: AFP
Biosecurity teams are heading to Australia and the UK as the threat of deadly strains of bird flu looms.
The bird flu has spread in marine mammals across the world, and among cattle in the US as well as infecting a few farm workers there.
New Zealand has never had a case of the highly aggressive strains, but the Ministry for Primary Industries has been working for months on a response plan.
"The strategic response plan is still being finalised, as we look to the latest information and approaches to bird flu from overseas," chief veterinary officer Dr Mary van Andel told RNZ.
It covered 41 workstreams from surveillance to movement controls and vaccination, protecting native bird populations and commercial poultry, and human health, alongside biosecurity.
One team will be in Victoria next week, where chicken farms have been hit. NSW and ACT also have the bird flu.
In early August a group, including poultry industry people, head to the UK to look at farms there.
"The UK is closest to New Zealand in terms of size and farm systems," van Andel said in a statement.
"The group will visit commercial poultry and layer farms to hear about what has worked best."
A plan had to be wide-ranging, she said, and included the Ministry of Health, Te Whatu Ora and the Department of Conservation.
It covers protecting native bird populations and poultry, as well as human health.
Nationwide testing of birds in New Zealand was taking place, and test kits have even been sent to Antarctica for use where there are bird deaths that raise concerns.
"The implementation of rigorous on-farm biosecurity in New Zealand now, before an incursion, has the potential to protect individual farms from infection and to limit impacts," van Andel said. .
Part of the planning is how to keep businesses going in event of an outbreak.
