H5 bird flu found in Australian seabird for the first time

HOBART: Australia has recorded its first confirmed H5 bird flu infection in a local seabird, with laboratory testing identifying the virus in a greater crested tern found in Robe, South Australia, the government said on Friday.

Australia had for years remained the only continental landmass free of the H5 strain, which has been linked to severe disease and high death rates in poultry and wild birds around the world. Since June, 12 H5 cases have been confirmed in the country, but all previous detections were in migratory seabirds rather than local wildlife.

Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said the latest finding was worrying but not unforeseen. Speaking at a news conference in Hobart, she said there was still no evidence of any large-scale die-off linked to the virus.

"While this, of course, is a concerning development, it is not unexpected,"

Collins also said authorities had so far found no indication that the virus had moved into other animal populations, poultry flocks or agricultural systems, and added that the risk to human health remained low.

"I do want to reiterate, though, that at this time there is still no evidence of any mass mortality due to the H5 bird flu,"

Authorities step up surveillance

Collins said scientists were working to determine how the virus may have reached the bird. She noted that the infected species is a coastal seabird whose range overlaps with migratory seabirds that had already tested positive for H5.

“What we do know is that this is a coastal seabird that has an overlapping coastal range with migratory seabirds that have previously tested positive for H5.”

She said the South Australian government had introduced enhanced surveillance in the area where the infected bird was discovered.

Concerns for wildlife

There has been concern that the virus could worsen extinction pressures on Australian wildlife, much of which is unique to the continent. Almost half of the country’s wild bird species and 83 percent of its mammals are found only in Australia.

The bird groups most affected by the H5 strain include waterfowl, shorebirds, seabirds and birds of prey. Marine mammals have also been affected elsewhere, while detections have additionally been reported in animals including cats, goats, alpacas and pigs.

Officials had earlier said they were examining whether the disease reached Australia through birds migrating from the sub-Antarctic. Scientists said in June that the H5 strain had killed more than 13,000 elephant seal pups after infecting a breeding colony on Heard and McDonald Islands, an Australian external territory in the sub-Antarctic.