Attributable to Australian Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Beth Cookson:
Testing at CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness has confirmed H5 high pathogenicity avian influenza (bird flu) in a giant petrel in Western Australia.
This detection initially returned a suspected positive result at the state laboratory, and marks the fifth wild migratory seabird in Australia to return a positive result for H5 bird flu, with three others confirmed in Western Australia and one in South Australia.
- At this stage, there have only been detections in vagrant migratory seabirds that occasionally visit southern Australia. There remains no evidence of any mass mortality events and there are no detections in poultry or in our agricultural production system.
The risk to human health remains low.
27 June 2026
Attributable to Australian Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Beth Cookson:
Testing at CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) has confirmed H5 high pathogenicity avian influenza (bird flu) in a giant petrel in Western Australia.
This detection marks the fourth wild migratory seabird in Australia to return a positive result for H5 bird flu, with two others confirmed in Western Australia and one in South Australia.
Western Australian has also reported a further suspect positive detection, in a giant petrel found at Roses Beach, west of Esperance, with samples sent for confirmatory testing at CSIRO’s ACDP.
- At this stage, there have only been detections in vagrant migratory seabirds that occasionally visit southern Australia. There remains no evidence of any mass mortality events and there are no detections in poultry or in our agricultural production system.
The risk to human health remains low.
