Trending 
Australia has confirmed the presence of the highly contagious H5 bird flu strain in a second state, raising concerns about the spread of the virus among migratory birds.
The country’s agriculture minister, Julie Collins, announced on Wednesday that the latest case was detected in South Australia after an infected migratory seabird was found hundreds of kilometres from an earlier case identified in Western Australia last week.
Australia had long remained the only continental landmass free of the H5 strain, which has caused widespread outbreaks, severe illness and significant poultry deaths across many parts of the world.
Collins said the latest detection was concerning but not unexpected, given the global spread of the virus through migratory bird populations.
She noted that authorities had not recorded any mass bird deaths and that there was currently no evidence the virus had entered poultry farms or Australia’s agricultural production system.
The minister also maintained that the risk to human health remained low.
“This is obviously concerning, but given the spread of H5 globally it is not unexpected that other migratory birds may have arrived at other locations across the Australian coastline,” Collins told reporters.
“At this stage there is no evidence of mass mortalities. There is also no evidence of infection in poultry or in our agricultural production system,” Collins added. “There continues to be a low risk to human health.”
The emergence of the virus has already prompted precautionary measures within the poultry industry. One of Australia’s largest poultry producers has placed its farms in Western Australia under lockdown to prevent infection.
The development also briefly affected trade, with neighbouring Papua New Guinea temporarily suspending imports of Australian eggs and chicken products before later lifting most of the restrictions.
