Australia holds largest bird flu exercise

A national exercise to test whether Australia is prepared to cope with a potentially deadly outbreak of bird flu is being held Monday in Brisbane, the capital city of the state of Queensland.

Queensland chief veterinary officer Ian Douglas said "Exercise Consumption" is the first of its size and scope anywhere in the world, Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio reported.

"Health authorities have been concerned since about 2003 that the H5N1 type of influenza of birds, because there's so much of it about, that it may be the candidate to mutate or change, that it can go in humans and therefore I guess, in the back of everyone's mind, yes that's probably a scenario," he was quoted as saying.

"This H5N1 virus has fictionally changed so that it can start to spread amongst humans," he said.

The virus is transmitted from birds to humans but experts fear the disease could develop into a pandemic if it mutates into a flu transmissible between humans.

It was reported that about 1,000 people will take part in the health exercise that runs until Thursday.

The exercise will test Australia's health management plan for dealing with a pandemic and will be viewed by 55 international observers.

Australian Health Minister Tony Abbott said part of the exercise will involve a passenger carrying bird flu arriving at Brisbane Airport on Tuesday.

Source: Xinhua