Australia Confirms First Bird Flu Death in Mammal
Australia Confirms First Bird Flu Death in Mammal
The News
A long-nosed fur seal has died of H5 bird flu in South Australia — the first confirmed case of the virus in a mammal on the Australian mainland.
Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins announced the detection, saying the seal tested positive at Beachport, south of Adelaide on the state's Limestone Coast.
"This is sadly our first confirmed case of H5 bird flu in a mammal in Australia," Collins said.
The seal was found dead on Wednesday. It follows mass die-offs of seabirds in two states over the past week.
Timeline
The long-nosed fur seal is found dead at Beachport on the Limestone Coast, according to The Guardian.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas says aerial surveillance detected more than 1,000 dead crested terns on remote islands off the state, in three mass mortality events. "The loss of more than 1,000 birds is deeply concerning and the state government is treating these events with the utmost seriousness," he said.
Twenty-eight dead penguins and three crested terns are found at the Port of Grassy on King Island, off Tasmania, a week after the state's first bird flu case was confirmed. Specialist teams were sent to test the animals for H5.
The South Australian government confirms a little penguin found at Kangaroo Island also tested positive for H5 bird flu, The Guardian reported.
Collins confirms the fur seal's infection, Australia's first in a mammal.
Reactions
Collins called the detection concerning but not a surprise. "Although this is a concerning development, it is not unexpected for us to start to see infection in other wildlife, particularly in marine mammals, particularly in areas where there are high infection rates in wild birds," she said.
She said the seal appears to be an isolated case. "I have been advised that at this time the detection does not appear to be associated with other sick or dead marine mammals," Collins said. "An infection of this individual animal is likely to have occurred due to exposure to infected wild birds or the environment that they share."
Collins also said there is no sign the virus has reached farms: "At this stage there is no evidence of infection in our poultry or agriculture systems."
Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff said on social media that while testing on the King Island birds proceeds, "further teams are being surged to the area."
What's Next
South Australian authorities are seeking approval for a vaccination program to protect vulnerable animals, Malinauskas said. The vaccine requires two separate injections and would initially target captive animals, such as those at Adelaide Zoo and Cleland Wildlife Park. No rollout timeline has been set.
Testing continues on the penguins and terns recovered at King Island in Tasmania.
More
Some 298 bird flu cases have been recorded across Australia, 183 of them in South Australia, according to the Daily Mail.
The highly pathogenic H5 strain has killed millions of birds worldwide and has crossed into mammal species, including elephant seals, The Guardian reported. Australia's federal government has assessed long-nosed fur seals and the endangered Australian sea lion as facing very high risk from the virus.
Reporting from Reuters, The Guardian and the Daily Mail.
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