Australia spends nearly $100 million to protect against deadly bird flu

The Australian government has announced $95 million in measures to combat the looming arrival of a deadly strain of bird flu in the country.Australia is the only continent free of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, but farmers have been urged to prepare for it striking here.The Albanese government overnight announced it was spending the additional funding on a range of biosecurity and environmental measures to reduce the impacts of the disease.Bird flu has appeared in commercial poultry stocks in the US and other countires. (AP)In other countries, including the US and some European nations, H5N1 has caused a decrease in egg production and fatalities among wild birds and some mammal species.Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said its arrival in Australia was unavoidable.”The awful reality of this disease is that – like the rest of the world – we will not be able to prevent its arrival,” she said.The new spending includes $37 million to boost biosecurity and scientific…