Sydney: Scientists have discovered the highly contagious strain of H5 bird flu in a second Australian state, the country’s agriculture minister said on Wednesday.
Australia was for years the only continental land to be free of the H5 strain, which has caused severe disease and high death rates in poultry and wildfowl around the world.
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The first H5 case was confirmed in the state of Western Australia last week, with officials now warning of another case detected in a migratory seabird found hundreds of kilometers away in South Australia.
“This is certainly concerning, but given the spread of H5 globally, it is not unexpected that other migratory birds may have arrived elsewhere along the Australian coast,” Agriculture Minister Julie Collins told reporters.
"At this stage there is no evidence of mass mortality. There is also no evidence of infection in poultry or in our agricultural production system," Collins added. "It continues to pose a low risk to human health."
Confirmation of the spread of H5 has the potential to cause significant disruption.
One of the country’s biggest poultry producers has closed farms in Western Australia in a bid to stay disease-free.
Neighboring Papua New Guinea briefly suspended imports of Australian eggs and chicken — although this has since been lifted with some exceptions.
