Winter Afternoons with Angie McBride - 7th July 2026

In Mel's news, there's a suspected case of the H5 bird flu being detected in a seabird in York Peninsula.

This was Primary Industries Minister Anne Skye Fruam from Primary Industries Chief Veterinary Officer just a little shortly before.

We remain with only one confirmed case, the one that was found on the 24th of June.

But we have had a second bird which is now considered a suspect case.

That is also a giant pectoral that was found at Hardwick Bay.

That has been submitted for testing.

The testing here at Gribbles indicated that it may be positive for H5 bird flu that has now been sent to the laboratory in Geelong for further testing.

At this stage we are treating it as a suspect positive and wanted to share that information with South Australia.

Now it's important to note that we still don't have any detections in commercial poultry.

We don't have any indications of mass mortalities either in bird life or in any other wildlife at this stage.

So it continues to be an isolated event in a migratory seabird, albeit this is now the second isolated event.

I'll pass it over now to Skye Frewen, the Chief Veterinary Officer, to provide some additional information.

Thanks,

Minister.

So just a little bit more on this particular case.

As Minister said, it is in a giant petrol that was reported by a member of the public from Hardwick Bay in York Peninsula.

We have undergone testing here at our lab, which is normal protocol.

quite low levels of virus, which is why we are not considering it a confirmed case at this point.

We do hope to have more results from the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness, which is the national laboratory in Geelong, within the next 24 to 48 hours.

Importantly, it is just an isolated case in another migratory seabird.

So just a reminder of what you should do if you see a dead or sick bird or wildlife showing signs of flu, possible signs of bird flu, multiple sick or dead birds in one location, weakness, inability to stand or fly.

neurological signs or abnormal behavior swelling or discoloration and respiratory distress so obviously do not touch them avoid contact record what you see and you can you can report it to the emergency animal disease hotline 1-800-675-888 that is 1-800-675-888 So let's see, should know in the next 24 hours what the result is of the bird.

All righty.