Australian authorities ramped up surveillance and testing after two cases of \u2060the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu were confirmed in migratory seabirds, as local media reported on Wednesday that several specimens were found dead on remote beaches.<\/p>\n
Tests are underway in South Australia after two dead sub-Antarctic seabirds and a\u00a0pelican \u200bwere found on Monday near Fowlers Bay, more than 1,200 \u200ckilometers\u00a0east of Esperance in Western Australia where the first \u200btwo confirmed cases were reported, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.<\/p>\n
South Australia state Primary Industries Minister Claire Scriven told ABC Radio it could \u2060be several days before results from the bird samples are available.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the \u2060turnaround times, it sort of depends on the outcomes … we hope this doesn\u2019t get to South Australia, but we know, \u200bof course, that it may,\u201d \u2060Scriven said.<\/p>\n
A South Australia Primary Industries Department spokesperson said there were no confirmed bird flu cases \u2060in the state, \u200bbut it will investigate any reports of sick or \u200bdead birds and will alert the public if a positive \u200bcase is \u200cfound.<\/p>\n
Ground-based surveillance and drone surveys are being carried out at sea lion breeding sites along South Australia\u2019s west and far west coasts, while testing frequency has been increased in high-risk areas.<\/p>\n
Two more birds \u200care being tested in Western Australia, far from the initial cases, but authorities said there was no evidence of a wider spread, the ABC reported. A total of 11 samples have been sent for testing in Western \u200bAustralia \u200bfrom 94 reports of dead or unwell birds over \u200bthe past three days, the report added.<\/p>\n
Until now, Australia had been the \u2060only continent without a confirmed mainland case, though the virus was detected in late 2025 on the sub-Antarctic territory of Heard Island.<\/p>\n
Human infections remain rare, but the global spread of avian influenza has devastated \u200bflocks and disrupted the supply and pricing of poultry meat and eggs in many countries. In its efforts to tackle bird flu, Australia has tightened farm biosecurity, increased testing of shorebirds, vaccinated vulnerable species and conducted response simulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian authorities ramped up surveillance and testing after two cases of \u2060the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[1128,50660,18,135,19,17],"class_list":["post-551319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-australia","tag-bird-flu","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116803582508568190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}