Along the southern coast of Australia, near the town of Cape Jaffa, a congregation of native seabirds has fallen silent — the country's first confirmed mass mortality event tied to the H5 bird flu strain. What had been a slow accumulation of 74 cases since June has crossed a threshold, shifting from isolated incidents into something ecologically consequential. Agriculture Minister Julie Collins delivered the news from Canberra not as a warning of what might come, but as a preparation for what almost certainly will — more spread, more loss, and a reckoning for species that have never before enc
Australia confirms first H5 bird flu mass mortality event in native seabirds
Large numbers of native seabirds have died in the mass mortality event, with authorities expecting further wildlife casualties.