#19,251
New South Wales has reported its 2nd confirmed H5N1 detection, bringing the nation's total to 15 (WA has at least one suspected case with results pending).
As we discussed yesterday, the backlog of reported bird death reports is growing, and so confirmed cases likely significantly under represent the true incidence across the country.
This brief update from Australia's Department of Agriculture.
16 July 2026
Attributable to the Australian Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Beth Cookson:
Testing at CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness has confirmed a further positive detection of H5 high pathogenicity avian influenza (bird flu) in a petrel, found at Hawks Nest, New South Wales.
There have now been 15 confirmed or presumed positive detections of H5 bird flu in Australia.
All of these have been individual wild seabirds found in coastal locations. All but one have been wild migratory seabirds.
There remains no evidence of any mass mortality events and there are no detections in poultry or in our agricultural production system.
The risk to human health remains low.
