{"id":862629,"date":"2026-08-21T01:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T01:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/862629\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T01:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T01:02:16","slug":"new-h5-bird-flu-cases-detected-in-merimbula-and-narooma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/862629\/","title":{"rendered":"New H5 bird flu cases detected in Merimbula and Narooma"},"content":{"rendered":"

New cases of the deadly H5 bird flu strain on the New South Wales far south coast have “gutted” locals who fear more birds could fall victim to the disease.<\/p>\n

The state government has confirmed seven positive detections, including in two greater crested terns and a giant petrel in Narooma, and four greater crested terns in Merimbula.<\/p>\n

The government says it will move to a reporting system known as “events”, which refers to an investigation that may involve one or multiple birds, rather than listing individual cases.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Signs warning the public to avoid birds and wildlife have been installed in Merimbula. (ABC South East NSW: Mikayla McGuirk-Scolaro)<\/p>\n

Signs have been put up at Spencer Park and Mitchies Jetty in Merimbula, both popular swimming spots, to remind the community to avoid contact with sick or dead birds and marine animals.<\/p>\n

Merimbula resident Andrew Dovell, who recently called the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline to report a sick bird, said it was distressing to think that more birds might die as a result of H5.<\/p>\n

“I’m gutted, it will be hard to watch,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s horrible. There’s thousands of them and we’re going to watch them get sick and die.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Andrew Dovell says it will be painful to watch the disease spread. (ABC South East NSW: Mikayla McGuirk-Scolaro)<\/p>\n

Prior to the latest detections, there were five individual cases of H5 bird flu reported in NSW.<\/p>\n

The previous cases, also involving greater crested terns and giant petrels, were detected at Narooma<\/a> and Eden on the south coast, Wentworth in the west and Hawks Nest on the Mid North Coast.<\/p>\n

‘Pretty serious’<\/p>\n

Tathra-based ecologist Steve Sass said he was concerned about the latest detections, but they came as “no surprise”.<\/p>\n

“This particular strain is highly contagious \u2026 we know that it’s spreading,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We really don’t know where it’s going to end, and I would be suggesting to people that this is pretty serious.”<\/p>\n

H5 bird flu is also affecting other parts of the country, including South Australia<\/a>, where authorities have identified three mass bird mortality events involving more than 1,000 crested terns, which are “presumed” to have died from H5N1 bird flu.<\/p>\n

More than two dozen penguins have been found dead in Tasmania, a week on from the arrival of the deadly H5 bird flu in the state.<\/p>\n

\"Birds<\/p>\n

Steve Sass says the disease could seriously damage Australian ecosystems. (ABC South East NSW: Adriane Reardon)<\/p>\n

Mr Sass said the greater crested tern was commonly seen in coastal areas and further fatalities of the species could be expected.<\/p>\n

“Birds are such critical components of our ecosystems,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This is a pretty devastating result for probably one of the most important groups of animals in our ecosystems.”<\/p>\n

The public is urged to report sightings of sick or dead animals to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New cases of the deadly H5 bird flu strain on the New South Wales far south coast have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,432116,1845,73487,137,367935,432117],"class_list":["post-862629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-avian-inflluenza-cases-nsw","tag-bird-flu","tag-h5","tag-health","tag-nsw-bird-flu","tag-nsw-bird-flu-infections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862629","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=862629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}