Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has said the country’s detection of the first H5N1 bird flu case is “concerning” and the authorities will do everything possible to contain its spread.
A migratory seabird, brown skua, has tested positive for the deadly avian influenza, and further testing is being carried out to confirm the strain, the country’s agriculture minister Julie Collins announced on Friday.
The case was detected in a remote part of the country’s southwest in Australia’s Cape Le Grand National Park, bringing Australia at last into the ambit of continents with a mainland case of the deadly strain.
The bird, which was found unwell last Sunday, had died from H5N1, testing positive for the deadly flu, said Ms Collins. Another bird, a sick giant petrel, found in the same area is also found to be infected, tests taken in Western Australia suggested.
Up until the authorities announced, Australia was the last remaining continent which had not reported the virulent strain of H5 bird flu. It was last confirmed on Heard Island, a sub-Antarctic Australian territory in late 2025.
The bird flu has spread through wild bird and mammal populations since 2021, killing millions, infecting poultry and dairy farms and even some farmworkers.
On Saturday, prime minister Albanese said the arrival of H5N1 bird flu was “concerning” and the government was taking steps to limit its spread and has already spent $113m in preparation.
“What we’re about is making sure, firstly, that we do whatever we can to restrict the spread,” Mr Albanese said.
“We, of course, always examine these issues carefully. We have prepared for it,” the prime minister said.
He added: “This is something that has happened through migratory birds. It’s happened, by definition, around the world, and that is why we’ve been preparing for this”.
Australian authorities were bracing for the arrival of H5N1 bird flu by tightening biosecurity at farms, testing shore birds for disease, vaccinating vulnerable species and war-gaming response plans.
Experts have cautioned the authorities that the virus, if it continues spreading, could destroy Australia’s native wildlife.
"This strain of bird flu has caused huge die-offs of birds and sea mammals," said Wayne Boardman, a wildlife veterinarian and associate professor at Adelaide University.
"My concerns are that if the H5N1 avian flu virus is confirmed, it will pose a huge risk to some of our more endangered shorebirds, some of our coastal raptors, and our precious, unique, endemic and endangered Australian sea lions, whose population is precarious,” Mr Boardman told the Guardian.
The H5N1 virus is a type of highly pathogenic influenza A virus with a high mortality rate among birds. Wild species, especially those in aquatic environments, are the virus’ natural reservoir.
H5N1 was first detected in domestic geese in China in 1997, and it has since spread widely across several continents via migratory birds, diversifying into different genetic groups or clades.
The virus has spread to a large number of bird and mammal species across the globe and is now the cause of a widespread outbreak in the animal world known as a panzootic.
