{"id":756798,"date":"2026-06-24T08:09:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T08:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756798\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T08:09:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T08:09:22","slug":"bird-flu-confirmed-in-south-australia-as-infected-petrel-brings-deadly-h5n1-cases-to-three-bird-flu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756798\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu confirmed in South Australia as infected petrel brings deadly H5N1 cases to three | Bird flu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deadly H5 bird flu has been confirmed in two Australian states after a migratory seabird tested positive for the disease in South Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Western Australia also has another suspected positive case, in a southern giant petrel, found dead in the Quindalup region in the state\u2019s south west.<\/p>\n

That would bring the number of cases to four.<\/p>\n

The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas<\/a>, said a giant petrel had been found unwell on Knights Beach in Port Elliot on 14 June.<\/p>\n

The WA agriculture minister, Jackie Jarvis, also confirmed a third suspected case in that state in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The state has been investigating reports from the public of dead and unwell birds after two migratory birds near Esperance tested positive last week<\/a> for the deadly strain that has devastated wildlife populations globally.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Jarvis said test samples from the third case, a southern giant petrel also from the subantarctic region, had been sent to the CSIRO for confirmation.<\/p>\n

Speaking with the federal agriculture minister, Julie Collins, in Canberra, Malinauskas said authorities were alerted on 19 June to social media posts indicating the bird was in care with Wildlife<\/a> Welfare Organisation SA.<\/p>\n

Map of Australia showing locations of bird flu cases in Western Australia and South Australia<\/a><\/p>\n

He said authorities \u201cresponded quickly\u201d and the animal was tested for H5 bird flu, with a positive result confirmed by the CSIRO on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Malinauskas said the government was in contact with volunteers who had come into contact with unwell birds and would prescribe the antiviral Tamiflu if necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very, very important now that we have received a positive result from South Australia, that people are very aware that they can report any signs of bird life that is unwell or dead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can do that through our hotline, which is again something I encourage people to call if in doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Beach washed and debilitated\u2019<\/p>\n

Justin Biddle, wildlife rescue centre manager for Wildlife Welfare Organisation, said the confirmed SA case had been brought into the organisation\u2019s centre in Goolwa on 14 June, before the announcement of two bird flu cases in Western Australia.<\/p>\n

The sick giant petrel was found on Knights Beach, Port Elliot, South Australia. Tests later confirmed the bird had the H5N1 bird flu strain. Photograph: Wildlife Welfare Org.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get a few giant petrels come in each year. This one was showing signs of being beach washed and debilitated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the bird was cared for at the centre until South Australia\u2019s primary industries authority, Pirsa, were alerted by a social media post about petrels arriving at the centre.<\/p>\n

He said Pirsa had carried out an initial swab test which was negative, but had then called to say that test was inconclusive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey called back and picked up the bird [on 23 June]. It was relatively fit and healthy and was putting on weight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Collins said there continued to be no evidence H5 bird flu had spread to poultry animals or to local wildlife.<\/p>\n

PNG suspension lifts<\/p>\n

The chief veterinary officer, Beth Cookson, said it was concerning to have a confirmed detection in another jurisdiction of the deadly bird flu strain that has devastated wildlife populations globally.<\/p>\n

\"There\u2019sThere\u2019s more than one bird flu: what recent outbreaks mean for Australia \u2013 video<\/p>\n

She said genome testing on the brown skua, the first confirmed case, had isolated the likely source of its infection to the subantarctic territories \u201cand in particular the Heard Island and McDonald Islands\u201d.<\/p>\n

Scientists recently confirmed<\/a> thousands of southern elephant seal pups on Heard Island and hundreds of adult king penguins in the subantarctic had died from the disease through 2025 and 2026.<\/p>\n

Collins said on Wednesday that a suspension imposed by Papua New Guinea on imports of Australian poultry products had been lifted.<\/p>\n

PNG had imposed the restriction on all poultry products on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Invasive Species Council said confirmation H5 bird flu had been detected in another state \u201chighlights the growing threat facing Australian wildlife\u201d. The organisation reiterated earlier calls from wildlife groups for an urgent $200m in funding for conservation measures to support the bird flu response by reducing other threats to species.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concern now is not whether Australia is taking the threat seriously \u2013 it clearly is. The concern is how well our wildlife will cope when bird flu inevitably reaches more native bird and mammal populations,\u201d policy director Carol Booth said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deadly H5 bird flu has been confirmed in two Australian states after a migratory seabird tested positive for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-756798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756798","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=756798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}