Source : Perth Now news
A second long-nosed fur seal is suspected to have died from H5 bird flu just a day after the first mammal death was recorded on the Australian mainland.
The seal being tested for avian flu was offshore at the Pages Conservation Park in South Australia.
It is one of five new suspect cases in the state.
Samples from these suspect events had been sent to the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness for confirmatory testing, with results expected to be known in the coming days, SA Department of Primary Industries and Regions said in a statement.
It follows the death of a fur-nosed seal at Beechport in South Australia on Sunday, the first death of a mammal due to bird flu.
The positive bird flu result in samples taken from the seal at Beechport in South Australia likely occurred due to direct exposure to infected wild birds or a shared environment.
Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt described the first animal death as a “very serious development” but insisted Australia was prepared for the outbreak.
“What we’ve been doing over the last couple of years is trying to build up larger populations of these mammals, so if we do have bird flu come, and it does kill some of them, we still have resilient populations for the future,” Senator Watt told ABC News Breakfast.
“I know it’s a distressing thing for Australians to hear but we need to be realistic.
“This is the sort of thing we have seen overseas.
“We’re very fortunate, we’re the last continent to have the bird flu happen, but we’ve been preparing for this for some time.”
In Victoria, authorities have started to vaccinate Phillip Island’s little penguin population – the world’s largest colony of the species – against the disease.
Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins warned on Sunday it was not “unexpected” to see infection in other wildlife.
She conceded it was “not possible to avoid significant losses” once the disease spread in the natural environment.
As of Monday, there have been more than 300 positive H5 bird flu cases in Australia since the outbreak, including 194 in South Australia.
