Second case of H5 bird flu detected on South Australian coast

Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven said testing was also underway into an additional two suspected cases. She said two birds were collected on Monday, one from Port Vincent on the Yorke Peninsula and the second from Emu Bay on Kangaroo Island. Samples from both birds have been sent to the CSIRO's Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong for further analysis. "We are continuing to act early and prepare carefully, while asking the community to remain vigilant and report any sick or dead birds or wildlife," Ms Scriven said. The government has also stressed that bird flu has not been detected in commercial poultry or any non-migratory wild birds in SA, nor has it become established in any part of Australia. The confirmation of the second case comes after the largest aerial survey in more than four decades of South Australia's coastline, islands and reefs. Ms Scriven said the survey is the first of many and was conducted across two and a half days using helicopters, a fixed wing plane, remote-control drones and field crews on the ground. She said the rapid surveillance operation recorded more than 30,000 seabirds and seals from about 600 locations, including 85 islands, islets and reefs between the Head of Bight and The Pages, east of Kangaroo Island. "Encouragingly, over 5000 kilometres of surveillance has shown that we don't have widespread mortalities in either birds or in wildlife," Ms Scriven said. "That is encouraging and speaks to the fact that these are still isolated incidents." The minister said the aerial surveys also targeted other remote areas in the state, including Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, the Riverland, the Lower Lakes and the Coorong. South Australia's first confirmed case, also in a giant petrel, was recorded on June 24. Other cases across the country include one confirmed case of the highly contagious bird flu in New South Wales and five cases in Western Australia.