Transcript of AE 1432 - 5-Minute News: Why Is Australia Vaccinating 5,000 Penguins?

Pete:
G'day, guys. Pete here from Aussie English. Welcome to this first episode of Five Minute News. So the goal here is to cover a recent news story in around five minutes. Okay, so let's get into it.

Pete:
I've got a question for you today. How do you vaccinate more than 5000 wild penguins? Think about it for a second. These aren't penguins living in a zoo. They're completely wild animals.

Pete:
So first you got to find them. Then you've got to catch them. Then you've got to vaccinate them. Sounds difficult enough, right?

Pete:
Well, there's another problem. You got to do it twice. Each penguin needs two doses of the vaccine. So somehow wildlife teams need to find and catch the same birds again.

Pete:
Why would Australia attempt something this difficult?

Pete:
Because H5n1 bird flu is now circulating or spreading among wild birds in Australia, and authorities are worried about what could happen to vulnerable native species, animals that could be badly affected by this virus, including one very small Australian bird, the little penguin.

Pete:
And yep, that's actually the name of the species. They're the smallest penguins in the world. And Phillip Island near Melbourne, is home to around 40,000 of them.

Pete:
The largest little penguin colony anywhere in the world. 40,000 penguins living relatively close together creates an obvious problem when you're dealing with a contagious disease. When lots of birds gather in a colony, a virus has plenty of opportunities to spread.

Pete:
But the penguins also have another behaviour that gives wildlife teams an unusual advantage. Little penguins regularly come back to their colonies on land. Many return to familiar parts of the colony, often including the same burrows.

Pete:
So wildlife teams have a pretty good idea where they'll come back. They can catch a penguin as it returns, give it its first dose. Microchip it so the individual bird can be identified later and release it.

Pete:
Then comes the tricky part. Waiting for that penguin to come back and trying to catch it again for dose number two. And while authorities were preparing to do all of this, the situation changed.

Pete:
On the 12th of August, Victoria announced the plan to vaccinate more than 5000 little penguins at Phillip Island and Saint Kilda. At that point, H5 bird flu hadn't been detected in any little penguins in Australia.

Pete:
Three days later, a dead little penguin from Phillip Island tested positive to H5n1. It was the first confirmed detection in the island's little penguin colony.

Pete:
Now, that didn't mean that thousands of Phillip Island penguins were suddenly infected, but it confirmed exactly what the authorities had been preparing for. The virus had reached the colony. And a few days later, on the 17th of August, the vaccination program began.

Pete:
So why are authorities taking this threat so seriously? Before the outbreak, researchers used computer models to look at what could happen if H5n1 spread badly through Phillip Island's 40,000 penguins.

Pete:
In their worst case scenario, basically what could happen if things went particularly badly? They estimated that between 8000 and 16,000 penguins could potentially die. That's not a prediction. Nobody is saying 16,000 penguins will die, but it shows why authorities are trying to act before they know exactly how serious the outbreak will become. And vaccination isn't a magic solution either. It won't stop H5 bird flu from circulating.

Pete:
Instead, the goal is to limit how much damage the virus causes and give the penguins another layer of protection. Meanwhile, wildlife teams will continue testing birds, monitoring the colony and watching for further spread. The big question now is whether all of this will be enough to protect the colony if the virus spreads more widely.

Pete:
We simply don't know yet. But over the coming weeks, wildlife teams in Victoria are attempting something pretty remarkable. They're trying to protect thousands of completely wild penguins from a dangerous virus.

Pete:
And to do it, they'll need to find many of those same little penguins. Not once, but twice.

Pete:
And before we finish, one useful expression from today's story is worst case scenario.

Pete:
A worst case scenario is the worst thing that could reasonably happen in a situation.

Pete:
For example, worst case scenario, we miss our flight and have to stay another night.

Pete:
So remember, a worst case scenario isn't what will happen. It's what could happen if things go particularly badly.