A long-nosed fur seal has died from H5 bird flu in South Australia, marking the first confirmed case in a mammal on the Australian mainland.
The seal was found dead at Beachport on Wednesday on the state’s Limestone Coast.
It marks a fresh escalation in the spread of the virus days after the South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, announced three mass mortality events on offshore islands involving more than 1,000 greater crested terns.Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailThe federal agriculture minister, Julie Collins, said the seal death was “not unexpected” as the virus begins to spread through the country.Speaking in Hobart on Sunday, Collins said the “distressing” news of the first confirmed case of a mammal on the mainland was anticipated and that it was “not possible to avoid significant losses”.“An infection of this individual animal is likely to have occurred due to exposure to infected wild birds or the environment that they share,” she said.“We can’t stop it spreading in terms of, particularly, in wild birds, and where we see more dead wild birds, we do expect to see increased reports of marine mammals.”Collins said there had been 298 events across the country, with 183 in South Australia, 86 in Victoria, 11 in New South Wales, 10 in Western Australia, seven in Tasmania and one in Queensland.The risk of human transmission remains low, but people are being urged to avoid sick or dead birds and report them to birdflu.gov.au.The long-nosed fur seal was found dead with no signs of injury and reported to an official hotline by a member of the public on WednesdayTesting of samples from the seal later confirmed the H5 bird flu detection.The highly pathogenic strain of bird flu has killed millions of birds globally and crossed over into mammal species, including elephant seals.
