Arabic version: جنوب أستراليا يحقق في نفوق جماعي كبير لطيور مرتبطة بـH5

According to ABC News, South Australian authorities are investigating a mass bird mortality event after more than 80 dead and sick birds were found at Baudin Rocks, an island about five kilometres south of Cape Jaffa, on Friday. Results on the birds are expected in the coming days.

The investigation follows the first reported local transmission of H5 bird flu between a number of greater crested terns in South Australia earlier in the week. Australia has 54 confirmed H5 cases, including 40 in South Australia, 10 in Western Australia, two in New South Wales, and one each in Queensland and Victoria. There have been no H5 bird flu detections in poultry or livestock.

Citizen scientists Johanna Williams and Susan Belperio, who have seen dead birds wash up at Glenelg Beach since South Australia’s harmful algal bloom began last year, said sick and dying birds linked to the arrival of H5 were especially distressing. Dr Belperio recently found a dead silver gull at the beach that was among several suspected H5 cases announced by the Department of Primary Industries and Regions.

BirdLife senior adviser Sean Dooley said high mortalities linked to H5 bird flu indicated Australia was entering the “next phase” of the outbreak. He said confirmed cases had previously involved individual birds, but the virus was now spreading between native birds, mainly silver gulls and greater crested terns. Both species are abundant around Australia’s coasts, he said, raising the prospect of further outbreaks as they move around.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said officials were concerned by the increase in cases but were prepared to manage the impact as well as possible. He said the federal government had held significant talks with the poultry industry, which had monitored H5N1’s effects on poultry industries in other continents.