First mammal death from bird flu confirmed, a dreaded advance of killer virus

A long-nosed fur seal has been announced as the first confirmed death of a mammal by the deadly bird flu virus that is now spreading through Australia, a development in the progression of the virus long expected but dreaded by scientists.

The fur seal, one of 11 detections announced by the CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness on Sunday, was found dead with no signs of injury at Beachport in South Australia by a member of the public on Wednesday, but the H5 bird flu detection was not confirmed until further tests were conducted.

Since the initial detection of the virus in wild migratory birds in Western Australia in June, it has been identified in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Tasmania, where a mass death of penguins on King Island has been attributed to bird flu.

Bird flu killed around 75 per cent of seal pups on the Australia’s subantarctic Heard Island and McDonald Islands during the last breeding season, and the crossover to mammal species in Australia has been anticipated.

Bird flu viruses have circulated around the globe for decades. H5N1 is a particularly deadly variant and has killed hundreds of millions of birds around the world, with nearly 400 native Australian bird and mammal species facing extreme, very high, or high risk from bird flu.

Programs to vaccinate captive or discrete populations of small and highly vulnerable bird species – such as the little penguins at Phillip Island and St Kilda – are planned or under way, but there is no vaccination for mammals yet approved for use in Australia.

Vaccinating wild populations is difficult because each animal would need to be caught to receive multiple doses of the vaccine.