Australia confirms first H5N1 bird flu case in wild seabird

Australia has recorded its first confirmed case of H5N1 bird flu, a development that means the virus has now reached every continent.

The Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said the virus was found in a single brown skua near Esperance on the south coast of Western Australia, in Cape Le Grand National Park.

Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development said it was responding as part of a nationally coordinated plan with the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and stakeholders across Western Australia to reduce the impact of the disease.

The outbreak in the United States has killed millions of birds and driven up grocery prices, especially for eggs.

Human infections remain rare.

“We all knew we couldn’t be bird flu-free forever,” Australia’s federal Agricultural Secretary Julie Collins said at a press conference on Saturday.

Western Australia’s agricultural minister, Jackie Jarvis, said at a press conference on Friday that the state’s early detection system led to the bird being isolated and sampled for testing.

She said the response showed that Australia’s and Western Australia’s preparedness measures had worked and that the surveillance and reporting system had functioned as intended.

By Saturday, Jarvis said further testing confirmed the strain matched the version found on the remote Australian territories of Heard Island and McDonald Islands near Antarctica, where the virus killed about 13,000 of 17,000 elephant seal pups last year.

Those islands are wildlife sanctuaries.

Jarvis said there have been no detections in poultry on the mainland and no evidence of mass mortality.

A second case in another migratory bird is also suspected near Esperance.