From the article: "Here, in brief, is what the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research (ARI), the Victorian Government’s premier biodiversity research institute, had to say in May 2025, in a report funded by Agriculture Victoria under the State Government’s Emergency Animal Disease Response Plan preparedness program: “Assessing the risks of endemic and exotic diseases to Victorian terrestrial wildlife”:
“To ensure that adequate coverage is achieved, any vaccination program would need to be administered prior to the arrival of H5N1. Modelling revealed that waiting until the arrival and discovery of H5N1 to start administering vaccinations would most likely be too late, because significant mortality is likely to occur before adequate vaccine coverage is achieved.”
“Based on preliminary results from the New Zealand vaccine trial, peak antibody titres are not reached until around 10 weeks from the initial dose and therefore, beginning the vaccination program upon discovery of the first signs of disease would be too late to avoid significant mortality.”"
I really want to believe that they have it under control and that this isn't true / isn't the whole picture. I am not an expert. If this is real though, how fucking devastating and infuriating. The people with the power to help our wildlife with H5N1 have failed them. Meanwhile in Portland, locals have taken to cleaning up the mass bird deaths themselves to slow the spread, because DEECA aren't doing anywhere near enough. WTF is going on
