Australia was the only continent free of H5N1 bird flu, until last week when a brown skua was in Western Australia, about 700km from Perth, with the virus. Within days, authorities identified .
Bird flu can rarely spread to humans in close contact with infected birds or animals and has the potential to cause severe illness. More than 100 human H5N1 cases around the world since late 2020, mostly in the United States and Cambodia.
However, the risk in Australia is currently low. Importantly, H5N1 is still a bird virus, and can’t currently spread easily to humans or from human to human.
How it came to Australia
The H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b arose in 2020 and spread rapidly across the world, infecting bird species that previously weren’t major carriers. This includes charadriiformes – the skuas belong to.
Once it spread to Antarctica, and then to 4,000 km from Perth, it was a matter of time before it reached our shores.
H5N1 is typically carried by wild birds, which may then infect poultry, cattle or other animals. In poultry, the virus is highly pathogenic, meaning it will kill most infected birds. This is why the standard response is to cull infected birds.
At this stage, H5N1 has not affected other Australian wildlife, humans or farming. Australia has and experts hope our farms can be protected.
We’ve had outbreaks of H7 bird flu – but not the H5N1 strain
We have had of H7 bird flu affecting poultry farms in Victoria and New South Wales in recent years.
This is also a strain of bird flu, but compared to H5N1, it has had a less severe impact on poultry globally.
The H7 outbreaks were controlled by culling infected birds.
How are humans exposed?
Human infections may occur in people with close contact with sick or dead birds or animals. Infected birds will typically be dead or severely ill.
Cows, unlike birds, do not look severely ill. In the US, the when their milk was yellow and thick.
Historically, about who acquire H5N1 from birds or animals die of the infection. However, the current H5N1 strain has had a lower fatality rate in the US, killing .
Signs and symptoms in humans include eye redness (conjunctivitis), feeling feverish and flu-like symptoms: sore throat, cough, running nose, body aches, headaches and fatigue.
Other symptoms may also present such as diarrhoea, nausea, or vomiting but these are less common.
What about poultry and eggs?
Chicken, eggs and other poultry products are safe to eat in Australia. There are no outbreaks in poultry farms, nor is the virus widespread in Australian wildlife at this stage.
If this changed, and the virus became widespread, cooking would kill the virus, but handling contaminated poultry products would pose a risk.
We have had success in rapidly controlling recent H7 bird flu outbreaks in commercial poultry farms. However, backyard poultry and eggs may pose a greater risk, as these would not be subject to the same stringent controls.
People with chickens who notice dead or sick birds should not touch them, and should notify authorities.
What about other animals?
Cats on farms and develop severe neurological illness, staggering and having seizures.
The US has suffered in dairy cattle and poultry, with most cases from clade 2.3.4.4b, the strain that has spread globally. Human cases have mostly been in farm workers.
The virus in 2024 from wild birds and spread through the country by trade and movement of infected cattle across state lines, as well as contaminated milking equipment and feed. In the US, cattle feed , but this is not allowed in Australia, which will protect our cattle.
showed fragments of H5N1 could be found in about 20–30% of commercial milk samples. However, pasteurisation should kill the virus, so only raw milk would pose a risk.
While the virus concentrates in mammary glands and milk, it is not typically found in beef. Cooking would also inactivate the virus.
What might happen next?
If the virus continues to spread in Australia, it may affect our poultry and dairy farms. Infected chickens in a poultry farm would need to be culled.
In France, the poultry industry was so severely affected they turned to poultry vaccines. These are and this didn’t stop the outbreaks, but vaccines are being used now because the scale of the problem is so great.
Shortages of eggs and chicken may occur in the event of severe outbreaks.
Why doesn’t it spread in humans?
We have different virus receptors in our upper respiratory tract to those in birds, which is why H5N1 in humans.
There have, however, been in the virus that signal some adaptation to mammals such as humans, dogs, cats, dairy cattle, foxes, minks and marine mammals. Mutations that suggest human adaptation of the virus have in several .
The more opportunities the virus gets to be in contact with humans, the greater the risk of a mutation arising from reassortment of genetic material from bird flu and seasonal flu.
The virus can , which has human and bird-type receptors.
If the virus mutates further to bind easily to human receptors, or to evade our immune system, a pandemic may occur.
While there are no human vaccines for the current bird flu strain, there are H5 vaccines which may provide partial protection. Finland became the to farm workers.
Meanwhile, the seasonal flu vaccine protects against season flu. Reducing the burden of seasonal flu may help reduce the opportunities for the H5N1 to mutate.
, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC L3 Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, and , Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute,
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