Australia on Sunday confirmed its first case of H5N1 fowl flu in a mammal, with the lethal virus present in a long-nosed fur seal in South Australia state.
Australia has been grappling with rising circumstances of the extremely pathogenic avian influenza after it landed within the nation in June. The nation’s first mass seabird deaths from the virus occurred this month, marking an escalation of the outbreak that started after the virus was first detected in migratory seabirds earlier than spreading to native species.
South Australian authorities confirmed the nation’s first mammalian detection within the seal, discovered on the coastal city of Beachport, about 310 km (190 miles) south of Adelaide, the state capital.
The seal, one in every of an estimated inhabitants of 100,000 within the state’s waters, was discovered lifeless with no indicators of harm, the authorities stated.
Its demise “doesn’t seem like related to different sick or lifeless marine mammals,” federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins stated in televised remarks. “As soon as the H5 fowl flu is spreading within the pure surroundings it’s not potential to keep away from vital losses.”
Australia was the final continent to report fowl flu, though the virus was detected in late 2025 on the sub-Antarctic territory of Heard Island. Greater than 13,000 child seals had been killed by the virus on the island, in response to native media.
Seals are at excessive danger of contracting the virus, stated South Australia’s chief veterinary officer, Skye Fruean, as a result of they stay very close to wild birds on rocky outcrops on the coast.
“They’d be coming throughout, little question, actually excessive ranges of the virus of their surroundings,” Fruean stated in televised remarks.
H5N1 has not proven up in Australia’s poultry or agriculture, in response to the federal authorities, which stated on Friday that 297 circumstances have been confirmed nationwide.
-Reuters
