CSIRO testing confirms first case of native H5 bird flu spread, Agriculture Minister says

Authorities have reported the first case of local transmission of H5 bird flu in Australia, though the country’s poultry industry remains untouched.

Australia had 27 confirmed cases of H5 bird flu in wild seabirds: 10 in Western Australia, 14 in South Australia, two in NSW, and one in Queensland.

On Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said the Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Diseases had met and “agreed, based on testing and sequencing by the CSIRO lab, that some local transmission has occurred between a number of greater crested terns that are resident in South Australia”.

Ms Collins said authorities expected there to be further detections in Australian wildlife, but that there remained no detections in the poultry or agricultural industries in Australia, and that the risk to human health remained low.

Chief Veterinary Officer Beth Cookson said it was not “unexpected for us to start to see more local transmission in birds that share the same coastal habitat”.

“This news of some local transmission may mean we start to see wider spread among wild birds and other susceptible wildlife,” she said.

“We do know from the overseas experience that once the virus becomes more widespread in wild bird populations, it will not be possible to avoid losses in susceptible wildlife in the natural environment.

“Our focus will continue to be on surveillance to confirm where the virus is circulating, and to take further action to reduce the impacts where possible.”

Dr Cookson said authorities would continue to monitor any onward spread to other species.

The initial reported cases had been in petrels believed to have arrived from the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic regions.

More to come