{"id":855959,"date":"2026-08-15T08:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T08:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855959\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T08:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T08:50:16","slug":"first-phillip-island-penguin-dies-from-h5n1-bird-flu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855959\/","title":{"rendered":"First Phillip Island penguin dies from H5N1 bird flu"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Phillip Island penguin has died from H5N1 bird flu in the first detection among the island’s little penguin colony.<\/p>\n

The new detection is one of three announced by Victoria’s chief veterinary officer, Graeme Cooke, on Saturday.<\/p>\n

It comes ahead of plans to begin vaccinating the Phillip Island penguins against the virus on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Phillip Island penguin parade is a major attraction that draws national and international visitors.<\/p>\n

Authorities found the dead penguin away from the area where the penguin parade takes place.<\/p>\n

A great crested tern found in Lakes Entrance in East Gippsland and another in Dromana, on the Victorian Mornington Peninsula, also died of bird flu.<\/p>\n

It brings the total number of bird flu cases in Victoria to 74, but Dr Cook said there were likely more birds sick or dead in the state.<\/p>\n

“We \u2026 recognise that this is distressing for Victorians to see and to hear,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dr James Todd says the latest bird flu detections could lead to large losses of wildlife. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Victoria’s chief biodiversity officer, James Todd, said the latest cases were significant because the areas hosted several at-risk bird species that would congregate for the upcoming spring breeding season and could lead to large losses of wildlife.<\/p>\n

“It’s highly likely the conditions are conducive for H5N1 spread in those areas that would lead to large losses of wildlife,” Mr Cook said.<\/p>\n

“There’s little we can do to minimise that impact”<\/p>\n

“Having said that, we are working as hard as we can to protect at-risk species and to continue to respond to detections as they come on hand.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The vaccination of Phillip Island’s penguins against bird flu will continue as planned. (Supplied: Phillip Island Nature Parks)<\/p>\n

No halt to vaccinations<\/p>\n

He said the recently announced vaccination program<\/a> of the little penguin colonies on Phillip Island and St Kilda will begin on Monday despite the detection there.<\/p>\n

“We know that little penguins are iconic and highly valued by Victorians, and for that reason, we are working as a priority to protect those communities,” he said.<\/p>\n

Phillip Island Nature Park, which operates the penguin parade, will also remain open while the vaccination program is rolled out.<\/p>\n

“We are rolling out the vaccination program as quickly and urgently as was possible after the federal authorities released the permits and released the vaccines to the jurisdictions,” Dr Cook said.<\/p>\n

“We are very concerned \u2026 about this detection, but it does represent early surveillance and early vigilance.”<\/p>\n

He said large groupings of penguins were historically more susceptible to infection.<\/p>\n

“At this time of year, the penguins are not at their full capacity in terms of numbers, so it’s a good time to start vaccinating,” Dr Cook said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Phillip Island penguin has died from H5N1 bird flu in the first detection among the island’s little…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,1845,81439,137,93402,16895,17537,134245,6771,660],"class_list":["post-855959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bird-flu","tag-h5n1","tag-health","tag-little-penguin","tag-pandemic","tag-penguin","tag-phillip-island","tag-tourism","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855959","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=855959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}