{"id":868667,"date":"2026-08-26T05:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T05:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868667\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T05:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T05:10:11","slug":"suspected-bird-flu-infection-in-red-fox-in-metro-adelaide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868667\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspected bird flu infection in red fox in metro Adelaide"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Australian authorities say they have five new suspected events of bird flu in the state, including a red fox in Osborne in metropolitan Adelaide.<\/p>\n

SA’s Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) included the fox in its latest bird flu update that detailed five new suspected bird flu “events”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Samples have been sent to a national testing facility in Geelong for confirmation.<\/p>\n

Other affected species reported today included at least one Australian raven at Robe, little penguin at Southend, greater crested tern at Coonalpyn and Pacific gull on Kangaroo Island.<\/p>\n

PIRSA said reporting was now based on events, which may involve one or more animals.<\/p>\n

More than 300 infection events have been recorded across the country since the first case was detected in June, with South Australia having the most at 195 confirmed events.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Greater crested terns in Australia have been infected with H5 bird flu. (ABC News: Carl Saville)<\/p>\n

H5N1 is an influenza virus and has been known to infect birds and mammals, including pets.<\/a> It has not been detected in Australian commercial poultry.<\/p>\n

Dr Patrick Finnerty, a conservation ecologist at the University of Sydney, said red foxes were scavengers <\/a>which could shed the virus for days.<\/p>\n

“This is particularly relevant because scavengers are mobile. A fox feeding on a seabird carcass isn’t restricted to the beach where it found it,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Animals can also physically remove parts of carcasses and consume them somewhere else. This means a carcass can connect species and habitats that would otherwise have relatively little direct contact.”<\/p>\n

Vaccination for birds<\/p>\n

Efforts to protect native birds held in captivity have begun at conservation sites around South Australia, with Cleland Wildlife Park to vaccinate around 30 species in its aviaries<\/a> with federally approved vaccines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Phillip Island’s penguin population<\/a> in Victoria is also undergoing a vaccine program, however SA’s penguin colonies are unlikely to be vaccinated.<\/p>\n

Renee Daniels, one of the operators of Penneshaw Penguin Centre on Kangaroo Island, said vaccinating the creatures against bird flu would be “complex” because the birds were not microchipped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Daniels told 891 ABC Adelaide they have increased monitoring at the facility.<\/p>\n

“We’ve installed some foot washing stations, some foot scrubbers in, to try and prevent the spread as much as we can, but there’s really not a lot else we can do, they’re wild birds at the end of the day,” she said.<\/p>\n

Birds require two doses of the vaccine and need to be monitored for adverse reactions following the first injection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you see a sick or dead bird:Do not touch it.Take note of the location and, if possible, take photos.Report it to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline: 1800 675 888.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australian authorities say they have five new suspected events of bird flu in the state, including a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3443,64,63,97374,1845,6076,137,199414,1124],"class_list":["post-868667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-adelaide","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-centre-for-disease-preparedness","tag-bird-flu","tag-csiro","tag-health","tag-red-fox","tag-south-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868667","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=868667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}