Western Australian poultry farms locked down after H5N1 bird flu discovered in wild birds

Poultry farms in Western Australia have gone into lockdown after confirmation the deadly H5N1 bird flu has arrived on the country’s mainland. On Monday, the Ingham’s Group – Australia’s largest poultry producer – announced a “complete lockdown” in WA, despite no commercial detections of H5N1. It came after a brown skua, found on a remote beach near Esperance, was discovered to have the “highly pathenogenic” H5N1 virus on the weekend. A giant petrel in the same area was also tested and returned a preliminary positive result, while there have been reports of more than a dozen cases of sick or dead birds along the WA coast. Location of Esperance 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. Ingham’s said in a statement it would ask the state government to allow free-range chickens to be kept indoors, while all nonessential access to its operations would be stopped. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Australia’s chief veterinary officer, Beth Cookson, told ABC’s Radio National the virus had not been detected in wildlife, poultry or agricultural systems. But Cookson said authorities were trying to work out whether the infected birds had spread the disease into other populations. …