Poultry farms in Western Australia have gone into lockdown after the deadly H5N1 bird flu arrived on the country’s mainland, with tests confirming a second bird also carried the disease.
Ingham's Group announces complete lockdown
On Monday, the Ingham’s Group – Australia’s largest poultry producer – announced a “complete lockdown” in WA, despite no commercial detection of H5N1. This came after a brown skua, found on a remote beach near Esperance, was discovered to have the “highly pathogenic” H5N1 virus on the weekend.
A giant petrel found several kilometres away also tested positive for the H5 strain, ministers said on Monday, as the WA government confirmed more than 50 calls to a hotline to report sick and dead birds. Both birds have since died, the WA government confirmed.
Australia was last continent free of H5N1
Before the confirmation of H5N1’s arrival, Australia had been the only continent free of the virus which has killed millions of birds and thousands of marine mammals since 2021.
