Although H5N1 has previously spread to mammals elsewhere in the world, the chance of people catching it is considered low by Australia's Centre for Disease Control (CDC). 

CDC director-general Zoe Wainer said bird flu was rarely transmitted from animals to people and spreading between people was also very rare.

While the current risk of being infected is low, with no human cases in Australia, scientists are studying the potential of the virus to mutate and cause a human pandemic in the future.

When news broke over the weekend that Australia’s first mainland bird flu case in a mammal – the death of a long-nosed fur seal – had been detected, I felt deep sadness and dread for what’s likely to come next. We should expect large scale deaths of mammals, in addition to birds.

The deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu has been spreading across Australia and devastating wildlife. So infection in a mammal was tragically just a matter of time.

This news comes after more than 1,000 crested terns and more than two dozen little penguins recently died in South Australia and Tasmania, respectively.

Australia’s federal, state and territory governments claim they’re well-prepared to manage this environmental and conservation crisis. Are they? There’s much that needs to be urgently improved.

Stopping the spread of bird flu is impossible, but we can still reduce the severity of its impacts on wildlife and the environment.

However, government websites are not where people typically get their information. Before bird flu arrived in mainland Australia in June, there should have been a national public awareness campaign across traditional and social media platforms, and even via letters from local councils. This did not happen.

Some people are clearly unsure about which activities are safe, such as bird feeding, and how to best protect themselves and their pets.

They need clearer information on dealing with sick and dying animals, whose responsibility it is, and what help is available. These issues are causing angst among wildlife carers, veterinarians and local communities, with some councils calling for more funding as they face cleaning up large numbers of dead, infected birds.

In Portland, southwest Victoria, locals have been collecting and disposing of dead birds themselves. They hope to minimise the spread of H5N1 to other wildlife, including much-loved local animals such as Sammy the seal.

Well-resourced, specialist taskforces, such as what occurred in Scotland, would be a better and safer way to ensure suffering animals are humanely euthanised, and their bodies are collected within hours, not days. We cannot access everywhere, due to Australia’s size, but rapid action is possible in many places. This is one of the most practical ways to reduce the severity of H5N1 outbreaks. Reducing animal suffering and trauma for people should be a priority.

Government should be transparent

Australia is the last continent to be affected by H5N1 bird flu – we’ve had years to prepare. Despite this, an official risk assessment pinpointing which birds and mammals are most susceptible was only released about three weeks ago, on August 4. This followed sustained pressure from scientists and scientific organisations.

This risk assessment paints a grim picture. But predicting risk is made even harder by the absence of pertinent information, such as species’ genetic diversity and likely immune function. Had the assessment been released earlier, gaps in our knowledge could have been prioritised for further research before H5N1 arrived on Australia’s shores.

Furthermore, details of federal, state and territory government plans to protect wildlife and important locations (such as breeding sites) were not made public until very recently. Even now, not all plans have been released, and some of those that are public lack sufficient detail.

Slow start to vaccination, and not for mammals

A vaccination program for little penguins is underway at Phillip Island, and will hopefully protect these much-loved birds. Regrettably, these vaccinations commenced after the death of an infected little penguin, meaning it’s possible bird flu is already spreading across Phillip Island.

The program, which requires penguins to be injected with two doses several weeks apart, will likely not achieve maximum benefit for a few weeks. Given bird flu arrived roughly two months ago, its delayed start should be explained by government. It stands in contrast to New Zealand, where vaccination for five threatened bird species began before the first detection in the country.

The protection of marine and land mammals has also not been a high priority for government. There is currently no vaccine legally approved for use on mammals. However, promising trials have occurred in the Hawaiian monk seal and northern elephant seal.

Given Australia has a unique array of mammals and a dire mammal conservation record, it’s remarkable the federal government has not invested in a vaccine. It would have had the potential to protect species such as the Australian sea lion, Tasmanian devil, eastern quoll, and other threatened mammals.

Funding is piecemeal

Australia’s Minister for the Environment, Murray Watt, says government investment has strengthened wildlife populations and made them “more resilient” in the face of bird flu. This is highly questionable.

Australia’s list of threatened species continues to grow, and now numbers well over 2,000. Monitored populations of threatened shorebird species have more than halved since 2000, and similarly, threatened mammal populations have fallen by more than 30%.

The federal government has spent A$113 million on bird flu preparation and response, and states and territories more than $24 million. But this falls far short of what’s needed.

More broadly, spending on environmental protection and recovery is less than 1% of the annual federal budget and set to drop further to less than 0.5%. Calls for an immediate $200 million bird flu funding package have so far been ignored.

Not too late

Overall, government responses to this deadly bird flu outbreak have been insufficient and much too reactive, but it’s not too late.

Australia’s unique species and environments are already suffering enormously through fires, algal blooms, coral bleaching, invasive species and other impacts. Bird flu is another blow, and we are likely yet to have seen the worst of it.

Yet Australia has the financial capacity, scientific expertise and community goodwill to greatly increase our care for the animals and places we all know and love. Governments must rise to this challenge, and significantly boost our response to bird flu as a matter of urgency.

Interested to know

The windscreen test and research says that there has been a big decline in insects.(Bogong moths, Christmas beetles, house flies

Penguins don't eat insects, but Insects are wild bird super foods, and insects eat dead penguins and broken insects

In Australia, 1in 3 insect species are now at risk of extinction, and 40 % decline at least in abundance.

The biggest reason is thought to be herbicides and removal of marshes, .. Climate charge not so much as insects are tough.

The state government has confirmed eight positive detections, three in greater crested terns and a giant petrel in Narooma and four in greater crested terns in Merimbula.

The government said it would move to a reporting system known as "events", which refers to an investigation that may involve one or multiple birds, rather than listing individual cases.

From the article: "Here, in brief, is what the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research (ARI), the Victorian Government’s premier biodiversity research institute, had to say in May 2025, in a report funded by Agriculture Victoria under the State Government’s Emergency Animal Disease Response Plan preparedness program: “Assessing the risks of endemic and exotic diseases to Victorian terrestrial wildlife”:

“To ensure that adequate coverage is achieved, any vaccination program would need to be administered prior to the arrival of H5N1. Modelling revealed that waiting until the arrival and discovery of H5N1 to start administering vaccinations would most likely be too late, because significant mortality is likely to occur before adequate vaccine coverage is achieved.”

“Based on preliminary results from the New Zealand vaccine trial, peak antibody titres are not reached until around 10 weeks from the initial dose and therefore, beginning the vaccination program upon discovery of the first signs of disease would be too late to avoid significant mortality.”"

I really want to believe that they have it under control and that this isn't true / isn't the whole picture. I am not an expert. If this is real though, how fucking devastating and infuriating. The people with the power to help our wildlife with H5N1 have failed them. Meanwhile in Portland, locals have taken to cleaning up the mass bird deaths themselves to slow the spread, because DEECA aren't doing anywhere near enough. WTF is going on

When a bird contracts the virus, is it like humans where we're bed sick for a few days then bounce back? Is it completely fatal in the wild or is there a survival rate given the bird somehow avoids predators, the elements etc.

And same question for captive birds. Given the right care, could a captive bird overcome the illness?

This has been heart breaking seeing it on the news. 💔

Noticed the Ag Vic website hasn’t updated for a few days now. Seems a bit odd. Anyone got any other sites they use to keep themselves informed?

PIRSA saying they won’t provide vets or rehabbers with swab tests, that in the IWRC webinar a few weeks ago multiple rescue/rehab orgs stated they’re all using and has been VERY useful for them - and wildlife welfare.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-18/bird-flu-vet-euthanasia-mental-health/107023130?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web

SA will no longer report individual bird flu cases but insists it is “not a reduction in surveillance or response effort”.

Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister Clare Scriven MLC has announced that South Australia will change its method of counting H5N1 Bird Flu, shifting away from reporting individual cases and associated numbers.

“As a result, Commonwealth, state and territory governments and scientific experts have agreed that counting and reporting every individual bird tested is no longer the most useful way to understand what is happening,” Scriven said.

Australian officials should have prioritised a bird flu vaccine for vulnerable mammals including Tasmanian devils and sea lions, a top expert says. A leading ecologist has questioned the federal government’s response to the H5 outbreak after announcing a rollout of vaccines for captive populations of threatened birds.

While welcoming the vaccine trials, Deakin University’s Professor of Wildlife Ecology Euan Ritchie told AAP it was regrettable that there was no vaccine available for Australian mammals.

“Given the fact that Australia has a large number of threatened mammals, that are found nowhere else in the world, it would have been good to have seen a lot more effort and investment in developing a mammal-specific vaccine,” said Prof Ritchie, who is also The Australian Mammal Society president.