Some of the birds were sick, while others were dead. This comes on the heels of yesterday's announcement of South Australia Confirms 6th & 7th Seabird Infection - National Ttl = 20,
Samples from all 7 birds have been sent to the National laboratory CSIRO for confirmation and WGS (Whole Gene Sequencing). If confirmed, this would bring the nation's total to 27.
Authorities continue to stress that, so far, there have been no detections in poultry, or indications of any large-scale deaths in wildlife. This recent change, however - from detections in migratory seabirds to local species - raises new concerns over how the virus may be spreading.
Add in the close proximity of these recent reports to denser poultry production regions, and spillovers into the agricultural section become a genuine concern.
A few hours ago Professor Raina MacIntyre posted the following on X, showing the recent H5N1 detections overlaid on a map of poultry production regions.
You can visit the interactive map at EPIWATCH.
While past performance isn't always a guarantee of future results, the unfortunate history with HPAI H5N1 - particularly over the past 5 years - has been once it reaches new territories, it tends to establish itself fairly quickly in local wildlife.
We should expect an update from CSIRO in the next couple of days.
Stay tuned.
