Australia was the only continent free of H5N1 bird flu until last week, when a brown skua with the virus was found in Cape Le Grand national park in Western Australia, about 700km from Perth. Within days, authorities identified at least 16 other dead birds.
Bird flu can rarely spread to humans in close contact with infected birds or animals and has the potential to cause severe illness. More than 100 human H5N1 cases have been reported around the world since late 2020, mostly in the US and Cambodia.
