Along the windswept coastline of southwest Victoria, a baby seal has died carrying what may be the first confirmed trace of H5 bird flu on Australia's mainland — a quiet but consequential crossing of a threshold that wildlife authorities had hoped to hold. The virus, already responsible for the deaths of more than 13,000 elephant seal pups on the remote Heard Island, has now touched a common Australian magpie, suggesting that the disease is no longer confined to the margins of the continent's wildlife but moving through its heart. With 123 detections logged and no poultry cases yet recorded, t
Baby seal death marks potential mainland bird flu escalation as cases surge
Thousands of marine mammal deaths reported; potential threat to endangered Australian sea lion colonies and broader wildlife populations.