Australia Confirms First Case of H5N1 Bird Flu

Key facts

• The H5N1 strain of bird flu has been confirmed for the first time in Australia, meaning the highly contagious variant has now reached every continent.
• The virus was detected in a migratory seabird, a brown skua, at the Cape Le Grand National Park near Esperance in Western Australia.
• The H5N1 strain was previously detected in October last year on the Heard and McDonald Islands, which are remote Australian territories in the southern Indian Ocean.
• A study estimated that over 75% of baby seals on Heard Island, approximately 13,000 out of 17,000, were killed by the H5N1 strain since last August.
• The H5N1 strain emerged in China in the late 1990s and can infect birds and other animals such as foxes, seals, and otters.