SYDNEY: Scientists have detected the highly contagious H5 bird flu in an Australian seabird for the first time, the government said Friday.
Australia was for years the only continental landmass to be free of the H5 strain, which has caused severe disease and high death rates in poultry and wild birds worldwide.
A total of 12 cases of H5 bird flu have been confirmed in Australia since June but all of them were in migratory sea birds, not local wildlife.
Laboratory testing confirmed the disease had infected a greater crested tern in the town of Robe, South Australia.
“While this, of course, is a concerning development it is not unexpected,” Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said.
