Australia's first H5 bird flu case found by a vet on Esperance beach walk

The discovery happened during a weekend walk at Lucky Bay, about 35 kilometres east of Esperance. Veterinarian Daniel Wickenden, who works at Murdoch Veterinary clinic in Esperance, said he collected three seabirds found dead on the beach as a routine sample but flagged them to the federal Department of Agriculture when their condition seemed unusual.

Geelong's CSIRO-affiliated Australian Animal Health Laboratory confirmed the virus as the H5N1 subtype within 36 hours. Australia had remained the only continent without the variant. Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt announced a 100-kilometre protection zone around Esperance and launched routine sampling programmes at commercial poultry farms.

Poultry industry representatives have called for an emergency vaccination campaign to limit damage to Australia's $13.2bn chicken-export sector. CSIRO's biosecurity director said the dead migratory birds bear early markers consistent with virus carriage along the Antarctic flyway; the public-health risk is currently assessed as low and there is no evidence of human infection.