Overview
- The suspected case was announced on Friday after a giant petrel found at Hawks Nest returned a preliminary H5 positive and samples were sent to CSIRO’s national lab in Geelong for confirmatory testing.
- Results from the CSIRO confirmation were expected over the weekend and will establish whether the virus is the highly pathogenic H5N1 clade that has caused mass bird and marine mammal deaths overseas.
- State authorities have expanded operations with more than 500 trained personnel, a State Coordination Centre in Orange and a dedicated H5 bird flu call centre to find further sick or dead birds.
- There is no evidence so far that commercial poultry have been infected, but the Consultative Committee on Emergency Animal Diseases has advised time-limited indooring for free-range flocks to reduce contact with wild birds.
- Officials and scientists say the risk to human health remains low but warn the virus could be catastrophic for native wildlife if it spreads, and they are urging the public not to touch sick or dead birds and to report sightings to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline.