{"id":843929,"date":"2026-08-03T07:24:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T07:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/843929\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T07:24:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T07:24:19","slug":"australia-confirms-first-mass-death-of-seabirds-from-h5n1-bird-flu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/843929\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia confirms first mass death of seabirds from H5N1 bird flu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birds perch on a park bench as a dense fog envelopes the Sydney skyline, Aug 5, 2025. (PHOTO \/ AP)<\/p>\n

CANBERRA \u2013 Australia warned on Monday against the risk of a wider spread of H5N1 bird flu<\/a> after \u200bits first mass mortality episode among seabirds killed about 50 greater \u200ccrested terns off the coast south of Adelaide.<\/p>\n

However, there is no evidence yet of the virus on Australia’s farms, many of which have locked down to safeguard poultry flocks since \u200bit was first detected in June.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said testing \u200bconfirmed H5N1 bird flu in a group of 49 dead \u2060and 35 sick terns found by helicopter surveillance on rocks off Cape \u200bJaffa, 250 km (155 miles) from Adelaide on Friday.<\/p>\n

“Australians should expect to see more \u200bspread and larger numbers now of wildlife being affected,” she told reporters in Canberra, the capital.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Australian govt confirms first mainland case of H5N1 bird flu strain<\/a><\/p>\n

“This is the first confirmed case of a mass mortality,” she added. “Once the H5 \u200bbird flu is spreading in wildlife and the natural environment, it is \u200bnot possible to avoid significant losses, which is what we’re starting to see now.”<\/p>\n

Australia’s tally \u200cof 74 confirmed cases is spread as wide as the states of Western Australia and Queensland, though most cases were in South Australia, Collins said.<\/p>\n

Australia and New Zealand \u2013 which saw its first H5N1 case last month \u2013 \u00a0have spent years bracing for \u200bthe virus, with steps \u200bsuch as \u2060tighter biosecurity at farms, testing of shore birds, vaccinating vulnerable species and war-gaming response plans.<\/p>\n

The virus has killed hundreds \u200bof millions of birds and mammals in recent years, causing \u200bbillions of \u2060dollars in losses to poultry farmers, infecting cattle in the United States and littering beaches with corpses of birds and seals.<\/p>\n

H5N1 bird flu can infect humans who \u2060have \u200bcontact with infected animals. But the number of \u200bcases worldwide is small and officials say the risk to humans is low.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birds perch on a park bench as a dense fog envelopes the Sydney skyline, Aug 5, 2025. (PHOTO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2840,49,48,78460,84,293916,143589],"class_list":["post-843929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-australia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-h5n1-bird-flu","tag-health","tag-mass-mortality-episode","tag-seabirds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}