Australia’s suspected H5 bird flu case explained<\/a><\/p>\n Over recent years avian influenza has made its way across the globe. Now Australia has a suspected case. Here’s what we know.<\/p>\n The bird, a brown skua, was found sick on a beach near Esperance, in WA’s south, and an ailing southern great petrel was found at a nearby beach. Test results are still pending for the second bird.<\/p>\n The virus has been detected in more than 400 wild bird species and 40 different types of mammals since the start of the outbreak.<\/p>\n The panzootic \u2014 an animal equivalent of a human pandemic \u2014 made it to Heard Island (a far-flung Australian territory) last year, where it has killed thousands of elephant seals<\/a>.<\/p>\n A southern giant petrel is the second bird to test positive in a preliminary test for avian influenza. (Supplied: Lori-Ann Shibish\/Esperance Wildlife Hospital and Sanctuary)<\/p>\n There is still a chance the virus does not spread any further than a few isolated cases, but if it is carried to a freshwater environment and ducks, then “we’re in bad territory”, Deakin University ecologist Marcel Klaassen said.<\/p>\n “They [ducks] have no toilets, they poo in the water. So faecal-oral transmission is very easy in freshwater,” he said.<\/p>\n Ducks have been key spreaders of the virus in the northern hemisphere and to commercial poultry operations.<\/p>\n Water birds and seals are some of the most at-risk species.<\/p>\n Scavengers like silver gulls and raptors could be infected if more seabird carcasses carrying the bird flu wash up before authorities can collect them.<\/p>\n Small populations at risk\u00a0<\/p>\n Threatened species commissioner Fiona Fraser said many species were at risk.<\/p>\n “Ranging from mammals such as the Tasmanian devil \u2026 to critically endangered species such as the orange-bellied parrot,” she said.<\/p>\n “But also species which aren’t already threatened but which could become so in some locations, such as the black swan.”<\/p>\n Black swans are among the species most threatened by the strain of bird flu found near Esperance. (ABC South West: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n Black swans lack\u00a0some immune genes that combat viral infections found in other species of water birds<\/a>, which could mean being wiped out completely if the virus takes hold, a past study has suggested.<\/p>\n The WA government has said it had plans in place to protect especially vulnerable species, like the black swan.<\/p>\n The populations of endangered western ground parrots and orange-bellied parrots are estimated to range between 100 and 200 in the wild, depending on the time of year,\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/a775bd13fe6fc51fb8a0887dc538428c.jpeg\")
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