Another dead dolphin has tested positive for H5 bird flu.
South Australia’s chief veterinary officer Skye Fruean said the case was in a common dolphin that washed ashore at Encounter Bay on the state’s Fleurieu Peninsula this week.
She said there was low risk of an extensive outbreak among dolphins, although there is concern for land-based sea mammals like seals and sea lions.
“It’s going to be a chance encounter that that dolphin’s unfortunately come into contact with a wild bird that’s infected,” Dr Fruean said.
“You’re not going to see a big die-off of dolphins from bird flu.”
South Australia has now registered 340 positive H5 bird flu events.
Events are not individual case reports, but rather refer to confirmed positive tests affecting at least one animal from a species in a single location.
Dr Fruean said no recent events had shown signs of mass mortality.
Monitoring latest marine threat
“We’ve been really pleased that we’ve seen a bit of a slowdown of how often we’re getting positive cases, but we’re certainly still getting [them] consistently,” she said.
“There haven’t been any where we’ve seen really significant numbers [of individual deaths].
“We have had some pretty significant impacts on the crested tern populations in particular.”
A vaccination program has finished for selected birds at Cleland Wildlife Park and is halfway completed for birds at Zoos SA facilities.
The greater crested tern has been among the species impacted the most by H5N1 in South Australia. (iNaturalist: leafymouse/Greater crested tern/CC BY-NC 4.0)
The federal government has also confirmed that vaccines would be released for a little penguin program for South Australia.
Dr Fruean said operational preparations were underway to commence that program in penguin colonies living on Granite Island, Penneshaw and Emu Bay.
“I don’t have a start date yet for little penguin vaccination plans, but certainly that [operational] work is still continuing,” she said.