{"id":554010,"date":"2026-07-17T07:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T07:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/554010\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T07:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T07:33:11","slug":"new-zealand-confirms-first-h5n1-bird-flu-case-in-native-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/554010\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand confirms first H5N1 bird flu case in native bird"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">New Zealand detected on July 17 the first infection of a native bird by the deadly H5N1 bird flu, days after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/asia\/australianz\/new-zealand-reports-first-h5n1-bird-flu-case-in-migratory-seabird?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">confirming a migratory seabird had tested positive<\/a> in the country\u2019s first recorded case of the disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">A swamp harrier hawk, known locally as a kahu and found in the North Island\u2019s Wairarapa region, had been infected with the virus, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">New Zealand reported its first confirmed detection on July 15, in a brown skua found near Wellington.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cWhile it\u2019s disappointing to find a native bird with H5 bird flu, it\u2019s not unexpected following the confirmation earlier this week of our first case,\u201d Hoggard said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cThis hawk can go out to the coast &#8211; especially in winter to hunt. Hawks can get bird flu by hunting, eating, or scavenging infected birds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">There had been no detection of bird flu in poultry, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Health officials have started a vaccination programme for 300 core breeding birds from five of the country\u2019s most endangered species, including flightless takahe and kakapo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Earlier in July, Australia reported its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/asia\/australianz\/australia-confirms-h5n1-bird-flu-case-in-australian-seabird-for-first-time?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">first case of the disease in a local seabird<\/a>. All previous cases had involved migratory birds. REUTERS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand detected on July 17 the first infection of a native bird by the deadly H5N1 bird&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-554010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}