{"id":805736,"date":"2026-07-17T08:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/805736\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T08:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:43:08","slug":"new-zealand-detects-first-case-of-a-native-bird-with-deadly-h5n1-bird-flu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/805736\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand detects first case of a native bird with deadly H5N1 bird flu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">New Zealand has detected the first H5N1 bird flu infection in a native bird, days after the country recorded its first case of the disease.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-07-15\/new-zealand-reports-first-h5n1-bird-flu-case\/106919762\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Zealand reports first H5N1 bird flu case<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">The deadly virus was detected in a brown skua seabird near Wellington.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A swamp harrier hawk, known locally as a kahu and found in the North Island&#8217;s Wairarapa region, \u200chad been infected with the virus, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">New \u200cZealand reported its first confirmed \u200cdetection on Wednesday after an infected brown skua \u2014 a migratory seabird \u2014 was found near Wellington.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;While it&#8217;s disappointing to find a native bird with H5 bird flu, it\u2019s not unexpected following \u200cthe confirmation earlier this week of our first case,&#8221; Mr Hoggard said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;This hawk can go out to the \u200ccoast, especially in winter \u200cto hunt. Hawks can get bird flu by hunting, eating, \u200cor scavenging infected birds.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-07-05\/international-experts-discuss-lessons-learnt-on-bird-flu\/106871900\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">International experts weigh in on Australia&#8217;s bird flu response<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Experts who have monitored the spread in other continents say surveillance is key to tackling the deadly virus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">There had been no detection of bird flu in \u200cpoultry, Mr Hoggard said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Health officials have started a vaccination program for 300 core breeding birds from five of the country&#8217;s most endangered species, including the flightless takahe and kakapo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Earlier this month Australia reported its first case of the disease in \u200ca \u200clocal seabird. All previous cases had involved migratory birds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand has detected the first H5N1 bird flu infection in a native bird, days after the country&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,379119,1845,379116,73487,81439,137,379117,1697,379118],"class_list":["post-805736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-biosecurity-minister-andrew-hoggard","tag-bird-flu","tag-bird-flu-new-zealand","tag-h5","tag-h5n1","tag-health","tag-kahu","tag-nz","tag-swamp-harrier-hawk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805736","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=805736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}