Bird flu is a highly infectious virus that can also affect other animals, or occasionally humans, as well as birds.<\/p>\n
The highly contagious H5 strain has never been detected in Australia before.<\/p>\n
In other countries, the H5 strain has caused severe disease and high death rates in poultry, wild birds and affected mammals.<\/p>\n
The strain has spread rapidly across the world, carried by wild birds such as waterfowl, sea birds, birds of prey and scavengers, and spread through bodily fluids, droppings and feathers.<\/p>\n
The disease has also been detected in dolphins and seals and wild animals such as polar bears.<\/p>\n
Farm animals and domestic pets, including cats and dogs, have been affected by the virus, which can also be spread through contaminated clothing, shoes or items such as egg cartons.<\/p>\n
Overseas, some people have also become seriously ill or died from bird flu after close contact with infected birds or contaminated areas.<\/p>\n
There is no evidence that the H5 strain spreads between people.<\/p>\n
Different strains of avian influenza, such as the H7, have previously caused serious outbreaks in poultry in Australia before being eradicated.<\/p>\n
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has urged anyone noticing sick or dead birds or other animals to record the location and report it to the 24-hour emergency animal disease hotline.<\/p>\n
Common signs of bird flu in mammals include weakness, trouble breathing, tremors, seizures or walking in circles.<\/p>\n
Wild birds may not be able to walk or fly properly and struggle to breathe.<\/p>\n
Domesticated poultry may become lethargic and reluctant to eat or drink.<\/p>\n
People infected with bird flu may show symptoms such as fever, cough, runny nose, conjunctivitis and fatigue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bird flu is a highly infectious virus that can also affect other animals, or occasionally humans, as well…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,45],"class_list":["post-747320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}