A giant petrel found on the Western Australian coast. Source – Facebook.

AUSTRALIA’S fifth case of H5 bird flu found in migratory seabirds along the southern coastline has been confirmed by the Federal Government.

H5N1 infection in a fourth bird found on Western Australia’s coastline was today confirmed by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Julie Collins and the chief veterinary officer Dr Beth Cookson.

Ms Collins said testing at CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness has confirmed H5 high pathogenicity avian influenza (bird flu) in a giant petrel found at Roses Beach near Esperance in Western Australia.

“This brings the total number of H5 bird flu detections to five in all detections in migratory seabirds.

“Four of these detections were from seabirds found in Western Australia and the one seabird that was found in South Australia,” she said.

“As of this afternoon there remains no new suspected positives from state testing.

“I also want to confirm that state testing on a sick migratory bird in Victoria has today returned a negative result the H5 bird flu,” Ms Collins said.

“I want to again reiterate there remains no evidence of any mass mortalities in wildlife, there is no evidence currently of infection in our poultry or agricultural systems and there remains a low risk to human health.

“As I have said many times, given the spread of H5 globally, it is not unexpected that other migratory seabirds may have also arrived at other locations along Australia’s coastline,” she said.

“That’s why our government has been preparing for this, we’ve invested over $113 million to boost our H5 bird flu preparedness as part of our $2 billion investments in additional biosecurity since we’ve come to office.”

Ms Collins said the government’s response to bird flu has been swift and coordinated, and national biosecurity response arrangements have been enacted, with state and territory governments managing the on-ground response.

Dr Cookson said her focus is to put into practice learnings from international experiences with bird flu “and that our response is as appropriate as possible with the evidence that we’ve got available.”

She said almost 100 negative tests have now been reported across the nation through enhance surveillance undertaken since the first reported case.

She and Ms Collins thanked the public for assistance in reporting sick or dead wildlife.

“This is a sign of our strong biosecurity system working.”

Dr Cookson said authorities are still in an investigative phase, but would not be drawn on the possibility that surveillance had not detected all infected birds.

“Our activities will continue to assess the situation over the coming weeks and months, including through enhanced surveillance to determine whether there has been any additional cases or spread into resident populations.”

The two leaders reiterated the message that any multiple sick or dead birds or other animals should be avoided and not touched. Observers should record what they see and report it to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888 from anywhere in Australia.

For more information visit: birdflu.gov.au