Just watching the news about Australia being the last continent to record the H5 bird flu virus and now there has been a confirmed case... Bummer but i guess it was inevitable. It impacts birds and marine mammals like seals and sea lions.
We can report crook birds or marine mammals to Emergency Animal Disease Hotline 1800 675 888. Early detection might help manage the spread of the virus.
Worth bearing in mind since a lot of us travel remote coastal areas.
In tassie we are always coming across albatross, petrels, sea eagles, seals etc and its sucks seeing them threatened.
Seen reports that swans are genetically susceptible to it and there are concerns that they could be severely affected
Yet the mouse plague that could decimate our agriculture is hardly news. Depends what the media push. The headline in the paper here was all about bird flu threat and implies Covid-like threat to humans cos they love to stir everyone up.
I think it's a beat-up and all the swans and seagulls should be able to freely walk around without masks 
Clearly its fabricated and no pelicans or kookaburras will die. 
Joking aside, I guess this is just one of these things where some birds will survive it and get immunity and many won't. I guess the concern is it spreading to chickens and the like.
I find it interesting that a bird can fly so far from another place with it and still make it to Aus. This suggests that the virus is not as vigorous as it might have otherwise been, which is often a pathway a virus takes.
some of the sea birds migrate 50,000km. if they get sneezed on once every 1000km thats a lot of viruses 🤔
But yeh i think alot of the concern is that some birds like swans dont have good immune systems..
Select to expand quoteMark _australia said..
Yet the mouse plague that could decimate our agriculture is hardly news. Depends what the media push. The headline in the paper here was all about bird flu threat and implies Covid-like threat to humans cos they love to stir everyone up.
"Environment Minister Murray Watt said people should avoid contact with sick or dead birds." It is important to remember that at this point in time we only have two confirmed cases,” he said. “But we don’t underplay the threat that this poses to wildlife and our agriculture sector in Australia.” - Perth now.
^^^ yes that’s the truth. But not what the paper implied with headline and first couple of paragraphs
FFS it was one bird on the beach that is 50km from nearest town or agriculture.
and the headline was WA HOME OF DEADLY OUTBREAK and ‘patient zero’ with a byline of ‘ bird flu season - Australia’s first suspected case of deadly H5 strain’. What utter claptrap. Old people all stressing themselves there’s a new thing that’s gonna kill ppl.
I gather seabird toilet paper is already in short supply.
media knobheads
"Second case of deadly bird flu confirmed in WA
A second bird has been confirmed as having the deadly H5N1 virus that has sparked fears that WA’s wildlife and poultry industry could be decimated." - Perthnow headline
This isn't a new thing. Was on a trip in the Antarctic this past (their) summer and onboard were a couple of Australian researchers taking samples trying to determine which populations of birds had been affected by the flu. Spent a dinner with them discussing their work. Bird and marine mammal (seal) populations in the colder southern climates have been severely impacted by this.
Yes, the media makes money by hyping stuff up but this virus is nasty work and has already demonstrated its impact on animal populations.
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bird-flu-wiped-out-nearly-half-of-the-females-in-the-worlds-largest-elephant-seal-population-drone-images-suggest-180987699/
www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/bird-flu-antarctica
