CANBERRA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- An outbreak of a deadly strain of avian influenza in Australia could cause the extinction of native species, Tanya Plibersek, the minister for the environment and water, has warned.

In a speech on Tuesday, Plibersek said the government is worried about the potential impact of the H5N1 High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) in Australia.

Australia is the last continent to remain free of the deadly strain, which has caused widespread deaths of birds and other wildlife populations around the world.

Plibersek told the Zoo and Aquarium Association conference on Tuesday that the variant is coming for Australia and could cause major damage to biodiversity.

She said the government is concerned about the extinction risk to bird species in captive breeding programs that already have critically low populations in the wild.

"There's little capacity to cope with a new disease," she said.

"We are also worried that species in the wild that are currently doing well - or traveling along OK - will become vulnerable to extinction due to mass deaths."

The government in July announced a 6.9 million Australian dollar (4.5 million U.S. dollars) funding boost for avian influenza surveillance programs, warning at the time that migratory birds arriving in the country for the spring could bring the H5N1 strain with them.

Plibersek said the government was taking the threat seriously, but that an all-in approach was needed between different levels of government and private organizations to minimize the risk at a particularly dangerous time as the spring migration approaches.

The federal government in 2022 set a goal of preventing new extinctions of any native plant or animal species. Enditem

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