{"id":607554,"date":"2026-08-28T19:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/607554\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T19:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:28:14","slug":"bird-flu-jumps-to-dolphin-and-fox-in-australia-officials-say-low-risk-to-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/607554\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu jumps to dolphin and fox in Australia, officials say low risk to humans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"665\" height=\"443\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/359351.jpg\" alt=\"Malay Mail\"\/><\/p>\n<p>SYDNEY, Aug 28 \u2014 H5N1 bird flu has been detected in a dead dolphin in South Australia, officials in the state said Friday, the first case of its kind in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The cetacean was found dead in Goolwa, just over 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of Adelaide, the state\u2019s Department of Primary Industries and Regions said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the detection in the common dolphin is a new development in Australia, there is evidence of dolphins and porpoises catching H5 bird flu overseas,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDolphins would not commonly eat birds but it is not unusual for them to sometimes interact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Australia was for years the only continental landmass free of the H5 strain, which has caused severe disease and death in poultry and wild birds worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>There have been no cases detected in poultry or in the country\u2019s agriculture production.<\/p>\n<p>South Australia\u2019s Chief Veterinary Officer Skye Fruean told media that the dolphin is believed to have \u201ceaten a bird or interacted closely with a wild bird\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know that dolphins are highly susceptible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Officials also confirmed Friday that the highly contagious influenza had been detected in a red fox near Adelaide.<\/p>\n<p>It is the first case detected in a land mammal in Australia, the country\u2019s Chief Veterinary Officer Beth Cookson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe risk to human health remains low,\u201d she stressed. \u2013 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY, Aug 28 \u2014 H5N1 bird flu has been detected in a dead dolphin in South Australia, officials&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-607554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607554","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=607554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}