Mass mortality and infected mammals: Australia’s bird flu fears come true

Mass mortality episodes have already caused the death of more than 1,000 birds, and the disease has been transmitted to seals.

Experts fear more deaths.

Australia confirmed its first case of H5N1 in June in a migratory brown skua, a subantarctic species that lives on the country’s southern coast.

Since then, the disease has spread rapidly.

To date, 309 cases of avian flu have been confirmed, according to official data (the country does not count individual cases, but rather refers to events that could involve one or more birds).

Among the bird species that have died are the crested tern, the gull and the little penguin.

The state of South Australia has been the worst affected, recording 194 cases.

More than 1,000 crested terns — a large coastal bird with a yellow beak — are believed to have died from the disease on three remote islands, the state’s leader said last week.

On Monday, Environment Minister Murray Watt told the national broadcaster:

“We are likely to see mass mortality of birds and mammals. “I know this is very worrying for Australians, but we must also be realistic.”

So far, the disease has not been detected in poultry or farms, according to the government, and the risk to humans remains low.

People who find affected animals have been asked not to touch them, but to photograph them and report the sighting through official telephone lines.

Euan Ritchie, professor of wildlife ecology at Deakin University, said that while the disease had not been in Australia for long, the speed of its spread was worrying.

“We have a sense of dread, thinking that we are only seeing the beginning and that the situation is about to get much worse,” he said.

He added that Australian fauna has evolved in isolation for millions of years, creating animals that are not found anywhere else, such as the Australian sea lion, considered vulnerable, with fewer than 10,000 adult specimens in the wild.

But this isolation also meant that the animals were at greater risk of contracting new pathogens, since they had not developed immunity.

This particular strain of bird flu has decimated animal populations around the world since 2020.

Although Australia had already suffered from other strains of bird flu, it successfully eradicated them. The arrival of H5N1 this year marks the first time Australia has experienced this disease, testing the country’s ability to respond.

The arrival of H5N1 this year marks the first time Australia has experienced this disease, testing the country’s ability to respond.

The Australian government this month began vaccinating endangered bird species.

Among the vaccinated birds are 5,000 little penguins from the state of Victoria.

Their vaccination is simple, since every night they move with difficulty from the ocean to their burrows.

Millions of dollars in funding have also been allocated to combat the disease, including increased surveillance to ensure early detection and response.

However, some conservationists and experts have criticized the government for its slowness in distributing vaccines and have called for greater investment in the protection of habitats.

Ariful Islam, an expert in bird flu and epidemiology at Charles Sturt University, said vaccines are not the definitive solution, especially in the case of wild birds, which need to be monitored to ensure that the vaccine produces the antibodies necessary for protection against the disease.

Citizens are also joining the fight.

Volunteers are helping to document bird deaths, especially in South Australia.

Among them is Maureen Christie, secretary of Friends of Shorebirds SE, who spends each morning searching for sick or dead birds along a stretch of shoreline in the town of Carpenter Rocks and reporting the findings.

But the work has taken its toll.

“There’s nothing you can do to really help the birds,” he said.

On Monday morning, she was “elated” to find only 11 sick or dead birds.

A few weeks earlier, in one place, there were dead bodies every few steps.

Yes. The H5N1 virus has infected various mammals, such as cows, cats, foxes and raccoons, around the world.

However, marine mammals have been particularly affected.

In 2023, the disease caused the death of at least 24,000 South American sea lions on the continent’s coasts in less than a year.

In Australia, authorities last week confirmed the first case of H5N1 in a longnose fur seal in South Australia.

A second seal is suspected to have died from the disease on Monday.

Seal expert Jane Younger, from the University of Tasmania, said the disease could cause seal extinction if it spread among marine mammals such as the Australian sea lion.

Most sea lions share the same habitat in South Australia as infected birds.

No vaccine has yet been approved for use in Australian mammals.

“Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done to stop the spread of the virus,” Younger said, adding:

“It’s spread by wild animals, and we just don’t have any control over that.”