Australia on high alert for H5N1 bird flu outbreak

Australian authorities declared on Monday that the country is well-prepared for a potential outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain after reporting the first confirmed case on its mainland. The federal government confirmed on Saturday that a migratory brown skua found in southern Western Australia on 14 June died from the H5N1 virus, making mainland Australia the last continent to record a confirmed case of the highly pathogenic strain. Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday, Environment Minister Murray Watt said the case was not an unexpected development and that authorities had spent two years making intensive preparations for a potential local outbreak of the strain. A second migratory bird, a giant petrel, was found sick in the same area of southern WA on Thursday and has been tested for the H5N1 strain, with results pending confirmation. However, Watt stated on Monday there was no evidence yet of a wider outbreak or that the strain had infected poultry. ‘If we face a widespread outbreak of this deadly strain, it will have very significant impacts on Australia’s wildlife,’ he said. ‘I can stress that we have prepared as much as possible for this, but it is a risk we must take seriously.’ He said the public had reported several cases of bird deaths in the WA region over the weekend to authorities and urged Australians to continue doing so.