H5N1 Avian Influenza

Key Events 35 entries

• 27 Aug 2026
  More than 150 influenza experts close a three-day WHO meeting that put H5N1 in the Pacific at its centre, with Australia and New Zealand presented as case studies. WHO, the FAO, UNEP, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the Pacific Community have built a joint risk assessment of the virus reaching Pacific island countries. Regional director Saia Ma'u Piukala calls the arrival in Australia and New Zealand "a sharp reminder that vigilance cannot lapse".

  WHOAsia-Pacific
• 1 Aug 2026
  A modelling study sets out what makes migratory birds spread H5 furthest: high bird-to-bird transmission, long infectious periods, birds crowding at stopover sites, and migration routes that overlap little between individuals. Viral traits shaped how much infection appears in waterfowl and how much reaches poultry, while migratory behaviour shaped when outbreaks happen and where.

  Royal Society Open ScienceGlobal
• 21 Aug 2026
  New Zealand confirms a third detection, a northern giant petrel at Cape Palliser, five weeks after its second. All three are single birds in the Wellington region and there has been no mass mortality, a markedly slower start than Australia's.

  MPI New ZealandNZ
• 23 Aug 2026
  Australia confirms its first H5 infection in a mammal, a long-nosed fur seal in South Australia, following the pattern set in South America and the sub-Antarctic where the virus killed seals and sea lions in very large numbers.

  DAFFAU
• 20 Aug 2026
  More than 1,000 crested terns are found dead in three mass mortality events on remote SA islands, Troubridge Island and the two Pages, presumed H5N1 and called a significant escalation by the Premier. South Australia's count reaches 177, and a suspected little penguin case on Kangaroo Island is under investigation

  SA PremierSA
• 15 Aug 2026
  A Phillip Island little penguin is found dead of H5N1, the first case in the colony at the centre of every Australian risk assessment and the ninth wild bird species. Victoria reaches 74 with terns at Lakes Entrance, its furthest east detection, and Dromana, its first inside Port Phillip Bay. The chief veterinary officer says conditions are conducive to spread that would bring large losses of wildlife

  Victorian CVOVIC
• 14 Aug 2026
  Tasmania becomes the sixth affected state: the Rocky Cape brown skua appears on DAFF's national event board, leaving only the NT and ACT untouched. Within the same day, Tasmania reports a second bird, a crested tern near Currie on King Island in Bass Strait, state-lab positive and awaiting national confirmation, with two more terns from the same location in testing

  DAFFTAS
• 6 Aug 2026
  H5 reaches a terrestrial bird in Australia for the first time, a magpie in Victoria, seven weeks after the virus arrived on the last continent to be reached. Every earlier Australian detection was a seabird or a shorebird

  DAFFAustralia
• 5 Aug 2026
  Australia abandons eradication of H5 in wildlife and activates a cost-shared national management agreement, six weeks after the virus arrived on the last continent to be reached

  Farm WeeklyAustralia
• 7 Jul 2026
  WHO's cumulative table reaches 1,000 confirmed human cases and 479 deaths across 25 countries since 2003, a case fatality ratio of 47.9 percent. Seven cases and two deaths have been recorded in 2026, and there has been no sustained human to human transmission of H5N1 since 2007

  WHOGlobal
• 18 Jun 2026
  The first H5 detection in an Australian external territory is finalised. Six of nine vertebrate species on Heard Island tested positive, and elephant seal pup mortality averaged 76 percent, peaking at 97 percent in one area

  Australian Antarctic ProgramHeard Island
• 31 May 2026
  H5N5 is confirmed in a polar bear and an Atlantic walrus on Svalbard, a first for both species in Norway. Later work suggests polar bear seroprevalence near 97 percent, meaning exposure is widespread and most animals survive it

  Norwegian Veterinary InstituteSvalbard
• 1 Aug 2026
  Australia records its first confirmed mass mortality event just six weeks after H5N1 arrived, with conservation groups saying the outbreak is following the South American pattern

  The GuardianAustralia
• 29 Jul 2026
  Australia confirms H5N1 is being transmitted locally within its native bird population, closing the last gap in the panzootic's global spread

  Reuters / news.com.auAustralia
• 29 Jul 2026
  Australian authorities say local H5N1 transmission between native birds is very likely, with 11 further suspected cases in South Australia including four on Kangaroo Island

  ABC NewsAustralia
• 28 Jul 2026
  Australia's wild-bird tally reaches 27 detections as all seven suspected South Australian cases are confirmed

  7NEWSAustralia
• 27 Jul 2026
  Australia investigates its first suspected cluster of local H5N1 transmission after seven native terns are found on the South Australian coast

  ABC / GuardianAustralia
• 26 Jul 2026
  H5N1 is confirmed on an Australian metropolitan beach for the first time, in a resident native tern in suburban Adelaide

  ABC NewsAustralia
• 25 Jul 2026
  Queensland's first H5N1 case is confirmed, taking the Australian outbreak to four states

  Brisbane Times / CSIROAustralia
• 24 Jul 2026
  H5N1 reaches a fourth Australian state as Queensland records its first suspected case

  ABC / QLD GovAustralia
• 19 Jul 2026
  Australia’s wild-bird tally rises to 17 detections across three states

  The Weekly TimesAustralia
• 17 Jul 2026
  New Zealand’s second case is a native bird as MPI warns the virus may become endemic

  ABC / RNZNew Zealand
• 15 Jul 2026
  New Zealand records its first H5N1 case

  Reuters / ABCNew Zealand
• 10 Jul 2026
  First H5N1 in a native Australian seabird, a greater crested tern at Robe, SA

  ABC / ReutersAustralia
• 04 Jul 2026
  H5N1 reaches Australia’s east coast as NSW confirms its first case

  ReutersAustralia
• 20 Jun 2026
  H5N1 confirmed on mainland Australia, the last inhabited continent reached

  BBC / ABCAustralia
• 2026
  United Kingdom reports the world’s first H5N1 infection in a sheep

  APHAUnited Kingdom
• 2026 season
  Poland leads EU outbreaks as the 2025/26 European season eases into summer

  EFSA / ECDCEurope
• 2025 to 2026
  US dairy outbreak entrenches as the human tally reaches 71 with 2 deaths

  CDC / CIDRAPUnited States
• Jun 2024
  Finland begins the world’s first human H5 vaccinations as the EU secures 40 million doses

  ReutersEurope
• Jun 2024
  WHO confirms a human case in India and Mexico records a fatal H5N2 case

  WHOIndia
• Mar 2024
  First H5N1 in dairy cattle opens a mammalian reservoir in the US

  USDA / APHISUnited States
• Jan 2024
  Catastrophic elephant-seal mortality in Argentina is attributed to H5N1

  UC DavisArgentina
• 2024
  H5 reaches Antarctica as about 13,000 elephant-seal pups die on Heard Island

  Wildlife Health AustraliaAntarctic
• 2022
  H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b establishes in wild birds and poultry worldwide as mass culling begins

  WHO / USDA

Key Events 152 entries

• 10 Sep 2026
  South Australia reports 285 confirmed events and three new detections: a little penguin at West Beach on Adelaide's suburban coast, the first penguin event in the metropolitan area, a fluttering shearwater at Carpenter Rocks, and a silver gull at Raukkan on the southern shore of Lake Alexandrina, the first event on the Murray's terminal lake. The state's public map still summed to 282, its newest record a greater crested tern at Parham on Gulf St Vincent, and the federal dashboard read 281. The statement gives 2,098 tests this year and 10,146 hotline reports since June.

  SA Government via Glam AdelaideSA
• 10 Sep 2026
  A juvenile whale carcass, thought to be a minke about 3.5 metres long, washes up on Dump Beach near Victor Harbor and is cordoned off to be tested for bird flu. Authorities say a result will not be known for at least a day. A local marine educator saw no sign of injury and named rough weather and separation from the mother as other possible causes. If confirmed it would be the first whale and the ninth mammal case of the Australian outbreak; until then it is under investigation and does not count.

  ABC South East SASA
• 10 Sep 2026
  New South Wales moves to 25 events on its own page, three ahead of the federal dashboard, naming greater crested terns at Batemans Bay and Broulee and a silver gull at Eden. Batemans Bay and Broulee are new localities in the Eurobodalla Shire between the Shoalhaven cluster and Narooma, so the coast from Port Kembla to Eden is now affected almost without a break. The state still publishes no dates and no per-event table.

  NSW GovernmentNSW
• 9 Sep 2026
  The federal dashboard moves to 502 confirmed events as at 4pm AEST 8 September, up four, with Victoria at 155 and Tasmania at 32, and the hotline series at 39,992 reports. Within a day South Australia and New South Wales had published past their dashboard figures and Tasmania remained one ahead, so the state-derived national figure stands at 510. The Commonwealth has issued no statement since 28 August.

  DAFFNational
• 9 Sep 2026
  A veterinarian who studies infectious disease in cats sets out what pet owners can do. No pet has been infected in Australia and the risk to most cats and dogs is very low, but overseas cats have deteriorated and died within days, most often after eating raw meat, unpasteurised dairy or contaminated raw pet food. The advice is to leash dogs, keep cats in, bring food and water bowls inside, avoid raw products and call the vet before arriving, since samples must go to a government laboratory.

  The ConversationNational
• 10 Sep 2026
  Western Australia commits $1.5 million to a wildlife hospital at Margaret River, the South West's first, opening in late October with a stated role in the state's bird flu response. The state has recorded no new event since July and is building capacity ahead of the virus.

  WA Government via Mirage NewsWA
• 9 Sep 2026
  Tasmania names three new localities and reaches 33 events, its first update in five days. A greater crested tern on Flinders Island is the first detection on the island, so both major Bass Strait island groups now carry the virus. A forest raven at Mawbanna in the north west and a peregrine falcon at Pipers River in the north complete the batch, the second bird of prey recorded in the state. The figure puts Tasmania three events ahead of the federal dashboard, which had been two ahead of it the day before.

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 8 Sep 2026
  Fact checkers debunk a claim circulating online that no bird flu has been detected in Australia at all, made in a video questioning why vaccination programmes exist. Hundreds of events have been confirmed since the first detections in June. An infectious disease expert notes that avian influenza has been described since the late 1800s, when it was called fowl plague, and the national science agency sets out how testing identifies the virus and its strain. A second claim, that no little penguin had been infected, was debunked in August.

  AAP FactCheckNational
• 8 Sep 2026
  The spread of bird flu into two urban foxes prompts the first published call for city residents, rather than farmers, to take up pest control. Some Melbourne suburbs carry 16 to 23 foxes a square kilometre, two to three times the rural rate, against a national population of about 1.7 million. The Australian chief veterinary officer calls the fox detections a concerning development but not unexpected, and repeats that there is no evidence of mammal to mammal transmission in Australia. The risk described is foxes moving infected carcasses, not foxes spreading the virus themselves.

  ABC RuralNational
• 7 Sep 2026
  The national dashboard reaches 498 events and overtakes the states. It moved 484 to 498 in one publication, its second single jump in four days, absorbing the eight event South Australian gap along with six new events. South Australia and New South Wales now match the Commonwealth exactly, while Tasmania sits two behind it and Victoria publishes no count at all. The department has issued no statement of its own since 28 August.

  DAFFNational
• 6 Sep 2026
  South Australia records two more events, neither announced: a black faced cormorant with a greater crested tern at Cape Jaffa, the site's fourth event and its first cormorant, and a greater crested tern at Coffin Bay, a new locality on the lower Eyre Peninsula. Both were read from the state's public event map rather than from any statement. The state total reaches 281 and matches the federal figure exactly.

  PIRSASA
• 7 Sep 2026
  South Australia begins its first vaccination programme, at Cleland Wildlife Park in the Adelaide Hills. Up to 100 birds across more than 30 species will each receive two doses three to four weeks apart, including orange-bellied parrots, regent honeyeaters, red-tailed black cockatoos, magpie geese and pelicans. Four states are now vaccinating, and every programme targets captive or closely managed birds rather than wild populations.

  Government of South AustraliaSA
• 5 Sep 2026
  New South Wales reaches 22 events with a gull at Vincentia on Jervis Bay and a white-fronted tern at Merimbula, the first confirmed event in that species in Australia. Shoalhaven City Council announced the Vincentia case as the shire's third, the fourth time a council has named or counted a detection its state did not.

  NSW GovernmentNSW
• 4 Sep 2026
  Victoria confirms H5 in a red fox found dead at Torquay, its first mammal case and the first anywhere in Australia outside South Australia. A dolphin found dead at Lorne is suspected but not confirmed. Victoria's acting chief veterinary officer says scavenging pests have not generally been shown to spread the virus and that the greater risk is of foxes moving infected carcasses.

  Agriculture VictoriaVIC
• 4 Sep 2026
  South Australia adds eight more events in one batch, again without announcing them. A brown goshawk at Millicent is an Australian first and the fifth bird of prey species. Two of the eight are marine terns found well inland in the Adelaide Hills, one of them 35 km from the sea at Cudlee Creek, the furthest inland South Australian case of the outbreak.

  PIRSA event mapSA
• 4 Sep 2026
  Bird flu reaches Tasmania's west coast. A silver gull at Strahan is the first detection on that coastline, a black-faced cormorant near Currie on King Island is a first for the species in the state, and a peregrine falcon at Brittons Swamp is Tasmania's first bird of prey. The state count rises to 28 events, and the department says future updates will name new localities rather than every positive test.

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 4 Sep 2026
  South Australia adds eight events in a single batch and announces none of them. A tern at Whyalla is the northernmost case of the entire outbreak, three of the eight are in metropolitan Adelaide, a black kite at Coobowie is the first kite recorded, and a dolphin at Arno Bay is the first mammal case on the Eyre Peninsula. All eight were read off the state's public map, which answers where its website does not.

  PIRSA event mapSA
• 4 Sep 2026
  New South Wales confirms the Corindi bird is the state's first shearwater case and says targeted vaccination of vulnerable species has begun, naming the little penguin colonies at Manly and Montague Island. Wollongong City Council separately names Windang as the city's first case, a location the state has never published.

  NSW GovernmentNSW
• 4 Sep 2026
  Two inland Victorian councils publish first cases the state has not named, both in greater crested terns: one at Kyneton in the Macedon Ranges, about 85km north west of Melbourne, and one in the Moorabool shire. Agriculture Victoria has published no case number since 20 August.

  Macedon Ranges Shire CouncilVIC
• 3 Sep 2026
  Tasmania starts counting events instead of detections, and its number now matches the national one. A crested tern at Beaumaris is confirmed as a second event in the state's north east, bringing Tasmania to 25 events. Its old series of individual detections closes at fifty-four; the two figures are different units and cannot be compared.

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 3 Sep 2026
  Free-range poultry farmers describe themselves as the most exposed part of the industry, with birds sharing paddocks with wild flocks. A South Australian turkey farmer says her Christmas flock is half her annual income and she has shed space for only half of it. Victoria already mandates housing for some flocks; South Australia only encourages it. No Australian flock has been infected.

  ABC LandlineAU
• 2 Sep 2026
  Bird flu reaches metropolitan Sydney. New South Wales resumes publishing its own count after nine silent days and names three new locations: terns at Warriewood on the Northern Beaches and at Port Kembla, and a Hutton's shearwater at Corindi north of Coffs Harbour, the furthest north the virus has been recorded in the state. Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney have each now had a case.

  NSW GovernmentNSW
• 2 Sep 2026
  The national count reaches 468 confirmed events, twenty more in a day. Victoria added ten of them and published nothing, its second silent double-digit rise in three days. Hotline reports passed 36,000.

  Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries and ForestryAU
• 1 Sep 2026
  A council names a detection at Dolphin Point on the South Coast, its second after Callala Bay, and installs biosecurity signage. The state had published nothing at that point. The council describes the bird only as a tern.

  Shoalhaven City CouncilNSW
• 1 Sep 2026
  Scientists publicly question the decision to evacuate Macquarie Island. A University of Tasmania ecologist says the government has not explained why removing all 24 staff was the best or only option, noting other nations monitor sub-Antarctic outbreaks under enhanced biosecurity. Others back the call, citing the risk to the station's water supply. The station sits beside about 19,000 breeding female elephant seals studied since 1948.

  ScienceAU
• 2 Sep 2026
  Tasmania publishes its first bird flu update with no case number in it. NRE Tas names two new localities, a crested tern at Wesley Vale and a sooty oystercatcher at Kelso on the Tamar estuary, the first of that species recorded in the state, and gives no figure anywhere in the release. The department said a day earlier that it would report new localities rather than individual cases. Its detection series ends at fifty-four.

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 2 Sep 2026
  Four states move at once and none of them announces it. The national dashboard reaches four hundred and forty-six confirmed events at 4pm on 31 Aug, a rise of twenty-five in a day, with Victoria up fourteen, Tasmania six, South Australia three and New South Wales two. Neither Victoria nor New South Wales published a statement, a location or a species. Hotline reports pass thirty-four thousand.

  DAFFNational
• 2 Sep 2026
  About eighty people attend a bird flu forum at Port MacDonnell, and the questions are about cleaning rather than epidemiology: droppings on a fishing pontoon, an uncovered fish cleaning station, and rainwater tanks fed from roofs. An SA Health representative was absent. The state collects carcasses along the Limestone Coast but no programme cleans public spaces, and epidemiologists put the risk to anyone not handling dead birds at nearly zero.

  ABC NewsSA
• 1 Sep 2026
  Bird flu crosses Tasmania. A forest raven at Triabunna is the first detection on the east coast and a tern at Acton Park is the first in the south, about 20km from Hobart, after weeks confined to the north west coast and the Bass Strait islands. Tasmania is at 54 detections on its own basis. In the same announcement the department said it will stop reporting individual cases and name new localities instead, the third jurisdiction to stop publishing a running count.

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 1 Sep 2026
  Vaccination reaches a critically endangered species. About 350 captive orange-bellied parrots begin a two-dose course at Five Mile Beach, starting with non-breeding birds so any effect on fertility shows before the breeding stock is treated. Fewer than 100 of the parrots remain in the wild. Vaccinated birds are released at Melaleuca to join the wild population before the autumn migration.

  Tasmanian GovernmentTAS
• 1 Sep 2026
  South Australia reaches 262 confirmed events, taking the national figure to four hundred and twenty-six at the time. A tern at Narrung on the Lake Alexandrina narrows and a black-faced cormorant on Granite Island at Victor Harbor are the newest. Granite Island is a little penguin colony walked by visitors daily, and the most heavily trafficked site yet to record a detection in the state.

  PIRSASA
• 31 Aug 2026
  A conservation biologist sets out what to expect next: waterfowl carrying the virus to shrinking inland wetlands, Macquarie Island's colonies losing their reprieve, shearwaters meeting it as they return to Bass Strait, and scavengers taking it into cities. He argues the measure that matters is the share of a species lost, not the body count. Bird flu has not yet driven any species to extinction.

  Australian GeographicNational
• 31 Aug 2026
  The government commits another $145 million to the H5 response, of which $20 million is for the native species most at risk, including work in Commonwealth national parks. Total preparedness funding passes $270 million, of which $67.1 million is for environmental measures. The named beneficiaries are the greater crested tern, the long-nosed fur seal, the little penguin, the brown booby and the Christmas Island frigatebird.

  DCCEEWNational
• 31 Aug 2026
  Two marine mammals are under investigation in Victoria, a seal at Rippleside in Geelong and a dolphin on a beach near Lorne. The council says it has not been told the outcome of any testing and has fenced the seal while it waits. All five confirmed Australian mammal cases are still South Australian; either of these would be the first outside that state.

  City of Greater GeelongVIC
• 31 Aug 2026
  South Australia passed two hundred and sixty confirmed events on 31 Aug, a snapshot now superseded. Ravens at Caveton, a silver gull at Port Neill on the Eyre Peninsula and a black-faced cormorant at Lonsdale in metropolitan Adelaide were the newest. The state reported 1,974 tests since January and 8,321 hotline calls since June.

  PIRSASA
• 31 Aug 2026
  Birds of prey are confirmed for the first time in Australia. A peregrine falcon on Kangaroo Island tested positive on 12 Aug but was never announced; it surfaced only when the data behind South Australia's public map was read directly. Two brown falcons followed on 28 Aug, 300km apart, and Victoria has the first owl, a southern boobook. Raptors hunt and scavenge other birds, and range far from the colonies where the seabirds die.

  PIRSA / Agriculture VictoriaSA and VIC
• 29 Aug 2026
  A second red fox is confirmed, at Normanville on the Fleurieu Peninsula, a day after the first. Two foxes in 48 hours turns a single spillover into a pattern, and it is the pattern the argument about a route to livestock depends on.

  PIRSASA
• 29 Aug 2026
  The national dashboard reads 418 positive events and 31,726 hotline reports at 4pm AEST, up 77 in three days. Most of the rise is South Australia's change to how cases are confirmed, not new spread.

  DAFFNational
• 28 Aug 2026
  Australia records its first bird flu case in a dolphin, found dead at Goolwa Beach on the Fleurieu Peninsula. The state's chief vet says the animal had likely eaten a bird or interacted closely with one, and that dolphins are highly susceptible but rarely found on shorelines. A researcher who has studied the local population for decades calls the speed of the jump very shocking.

  PIRSA / ABCSA
• 28 Aug 2026
  The red fox at Osborne in metropolitan Adelaide is confirmed by CSIRO, Australia's first case in a land mammal and the third mammal of any kind. The Chief Veterinary Officer says there is no evidence of mammal-to-mammal transmission here, and that overseas such cases in scavenging carnivores are believed to be isolated spillover from birds.

  DAFFSA
• 28 Aug 2026
  South Australia stops waiting for the national laboratory. Cases can now be confirmed on testing in Adelaide alone, under nationally agreed protocols, with samples referred on only where results are unclear. Every case that was waiting is confirmed at once, which is why the state added 46 events in a day. South Australia now reports no suspect cases at all.

  PIRSASA
• 28 Aug 2026
  All 24 expeditioners will be withdrawn from Macquarie Island research station, before the virus has been detected there. The stated reason is the psychological toll of an expected elephant seal mortality event during the coming breeding season. The icebreaker RSV Nuyina sails in early October. On Heard Island, H5 killed an estimated 13,359 elephant seal pups out of 17,364.

  Australian Antarctic DivisionMacquarie Island
• 28 Aug 2026
  About 100 dead penguins are found at Stokes Point on King Island. The carcasses are too decayed to test, so the cause cannot be established and the event enters no tally. Feral cat control begins on the island to stop scavengers moving carcasses.

  Parks and Wildlife Service TasmaniaTAS
• 28 Aug 2026
  Tasmania adds eight detections and reaches 33, with first cases at Stanley and Wynyard on the north-west coast and at Naracoopa and Loorana on King Island. A raven at Loorana is the state's first land-scavenging bird, the ecological role that carries the virus inland. The department's own two pages disagree on whether it is a forest raven or an Australian raven.

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 27 Aug 2026
  The federal government announces a further 20 million dollars to protect wildlife, on top of a broader 125 million dollar biosecurity investment. Four conservation bodies that had asked for 200 million reject it: BirdLife Australia posts "Did you forget the 0?", the Invasive Species Council calls it "deeply unserious", and the Australian Land Conservation Alliance sets it against the 2.5 billion dollar bailout of a single aluminium smelter.

  Yahoo NewsNational
• 27 Aug 2026
  NSW starts injecting. Taronga vaccinated its first birds this week, with trial groups of little penguins and black cockatoos taking the first of two doses, and the state is working with Taronga on wild little penguins at Manly Point. It is the second jurisdiction after Victoria to vaccinate wild birds rather than only captive ones. Premier Chris Minns: "no government can stop the virus from spreading".

  NSW GovernmentNSW
• 27 Aug 2026
  South Australia reaches 203 confirmed events, eight ahead of the national dashboard, and its suspect queue grows to 43. A brown falcon at Mount Schank enters that queue and would be Australia's first confirmed raptor. The day's confirmations reach the Adelaide Hills at Stirling and put pied cormorants at Seal Bay, the sea lion colony where beach tours are already paused.

  PIRSASA
• 26 Aug 2026
  The national dashboard reaches 341 confirmed events and 29,842 hotline reports. Victoria supplies 14 of the 30 added in two days, more than every other jurisdiction combined, while publishing no count of its own. Queensland's second event is confirmed and New South Wales rises to 14, ending the exact reconciliation it had held since 20 August.

  DAFFNational
• 26 Aug 2026
  A red fox at Osborne in metropolitan Adelaide is suspected of H5 infection, reported by PIRSA among five new suspect events and sent to CSIRO for confirmation. Both confirmed Australian mammal cases so far have been marine animals on remote shorelines. A fox is terrestrial, mobile, abundant and scavenging, and lives beside people and pets in a capital city. The other suspects were an Australian raven at Robe, a little penguin at Southend, a greater crested tern at Coonalpyn and a Pacific gull on Kangaroo Island.

  ABC NewsSA
• 26 Aug 2026
  Tasmania records six more detections overnight and reaches 25, with the first cases in the north east of the state at Lulworth and Scottsdale. Scottsdale is inland. Incident controller Wes Ford says the virus cannot be eradicated and that detections will travel further inland and into other species. A crested tern at Sea Elephant River is also the first on the east coast of King Island.

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 25 Aug 2026
  CSIRO confirms the long-nosed fur seal found at The Pages Conservation Park, making it Australia's second confirmed mammal case two days after the first. South Australia counts it as the event that takes the state to 195. The Pages hold one of the largest breeding colonies of the endangered Australian sea lion, of which fewer than 10,000 remain.

  PIRSASA
• 24 Aug 2026
  The national dashboard reaches 318 confirmed events and 27,692 hotline reports. Victoria supplies eight of the nine added in two days and is now the fastest-moving state, while publishing no count of its own. Tasmania rises to eight events, which brings the national dashboard and the state figures into line for the first time in a month.

  DAFFNational
• 25 Aug 2026
  Queensland records its second detection and its first on the mainland: a dead migratory shearwater found on Castaways Beach on the Sunshine Coast, positive at the state biosecurity laboratory and sent to CSIRO for confirmation. It was one of more than 3,000 public reports of sick birds in Queensland. The state's first case was on Moreton Island a month earlier.

  ABC NewsQLD
• 25 Aug 2026
  Australia's CDC sets out the human picture: no cases here, risk low, and contacts of infected birds monitored. Worldwide the strain now circulating has caused 141 reported human cases and 24 deaths in six years. The mutation linked to mammal-to-mammal spread in the United States is not present in the genotype that reached Australia.

  ABC ScienceNational
• 25 Aug 2026
  Tasmania publishes the only site-level detection table in the country and it now runs to 19 detections, fifteen of them around Currie on King Island, with a fifth species added in a little penguin. The department rules out a mass mortality at the Port of Grassy: one penguin tested positive and the remaining carcasses were too decomposed to test at all.

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 24 Aug 2026
  Environment Minister Murray Watt says Australians should be realistic: "We are likely to see mass mortalities of birds and mammals." Agriculture Minister Julie Collins says trials of a cattle-derived vaccine for marine mammals are running in California and Hawaii, with nothing commercially available for native seals. BirdLife Australia warns that extinction from the disease is possible for some birds.

  SBS NewsNational
• 24 Aug 2026
  Researchers warn that backyard bird feeders can become transmission hotspots, drawing species together in combinations that would not occur in nature. About half of Australian households feed wild birds. The safest option is to stop; otherwise offer less food, never hand-feed, and clean feeders carefully.

  The ConversationNational
• 24 Aug 2026
  A second long-nosed fur seal returns a suspect result, at The Pages Conservation Park off Kangaroo Island, one of five new suspect events in South Australia and awaiting CSIRO confirmation. The Pages hold one of the largest breeding colonies of the endangered Australian sea lion, and carried two of the three mass mortality events revealed on 20 Aug. Beach tours at Seal Bay are paused as a precaution.

  PIRSASA
• 23 Aug 2026
  Australia records its first H5 case in a mammal: a long-nosed fur seal found dead at Beachport, confirmed by CSIRO and announced by Agriculture Minister Julie Collins. It was reported to the hotline on 19 Aug but not logged as suspect at the time, because state testing was inconclusive. Conservationists warn an incursion into Australian sea lions could be an extinction-level event for the species.

  DAFFSA
• 23 Aug 2026
  South Australia confirms 11 new events, taking the state to 194. Among them is the little penguin on Kangaroo Island that the Premier had flagged as a particular concern, plus a gannet, a black-faced cormorant and greater crested terns as far apart as Arno Bay on Eyre Peninsula and Christies Beach in metropolitan Adelaide.

  PIRSASA
• 22 Aug 2026
  The national dashboard reaches 298 confirmed events and 25,909 hotline reports. The department also widens its own definitions, so that an investigation now covers wild birds or wild mammals showing signs of the disease.

  DAFFAU
• 21 Aug 2026
  Victoria extends its poultry housing requirement for flocks of 50 or more birds in coastal and southern shires by at least another 28 days. Chief Veterinary Officer Graeme Cooke says most recent events have been in birds that stay close to the coast.

  Agriculture VictoriaVIC
• 21 Aug 2026
  Tasmania reports seven further positives near Currie on King Island, taking its own detection count to 18, and includes Australia's first white-fronted tern. The suspected mass mortality at Port of Grassy grows to 51 dead little penguins, with results pending.

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 20 Aug 2026
  New South Wales moves to event reporting and publishes a numbered list of all eleven of its events, six of them new, covering seven birds at Narooma and Merimbula. Environment Minister Penny Sharpe calls the new events very disturbing and flags drone surveillance on the Far South Coast.

  NSW GovernmentNSW
• 21 Aug 2026
  Wildlife advocates call the mass mortalities the start of the mayhem, pointing at South America, where hundreds of thousands of birds died in the first few months, as the trajectory. The Invasive Species Council calls for a wildlife funding bail out, Wildlife Recovery Australia appeals for mobile veterinary hospitals in every state, and SA says it will consider vaccinating certain species including penguins

  ABC NewsAU
• 20 Aug 2026
  Victoria's published figure jumps to 104 positive birds across 70 investigations, adding 19 in a single day and 30 since 15 Aug with no site breakdown released. The national figure derived from state counts moves to 308

  Agriculture VictoriaVIC
• 20 Aug 2026
  More than 1,000 crested terns are found dead in three mass mortality events on remote SA islands, Troubridge Island and the two Pages, presumed H5N1 and called a significant escalation by the Premier. South Australia's count reaches 177, and a suspected little penguin case on Kangaroo Island is under investigation

  SA PremierSA
• 19 Aug 2026
  A suspected first mass mortality in Tasmania: 28 dead little penguins and three crested terns found at the Port of Grassy on King Island, with test results due within the week. If confirmed it is the first penguin mass mortality in Australia, four days after the first Phillip Island penguin death

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 19 Aug 2026
  Hundreds of dead and dying birds, mostly crested terns, reported along the Portland foreshore since 16 Aug in what would be the third and largest suspected mass mortality event. Authorities are yet to confirm the link and masked residents are bagging carcasses themselves. None of it enters the headline count, which records detections, not deaths

  ABC NewsVIC
• 18 Aug 2026
  CSIRO's reference lab publishes its genomic picture: the virus is genotype B3.2, it arrived in at least six or seven separate introductions all traced to Heard Island, and near-identical South Australian tern genomes confirm local transmission. Livestock risk is judged low; a whole genome now takes 15 to 26 hours to sequence

  CSIROAU
• 17 Aug 2026
  Tasmania reaches ten cases in five days: four more King Island birds at Currie, including the state's first silver gulls, with new north coast sites at Burnie and Sulphur Creek. Aerial crews inspected 760 km of coastline over the weekend without finding mass mortalities

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 18 Aug 2026
  Vets warn they may have to euthanase hundreds of savable wild birds, uninfected car-strike and fire casualties, because practices lack funded isolation facilities, with some clinics blanket-banning wild bird treatment. Clinics still accepting birds are improvising in tents and gazebos ahead of the spring influx

  ABC NewsAU
• 17 Aug 2026
  The largest wild-bird vaccination attempted anywhere begins on schedule at Phillip Island and St Kilda: up to 5,000 little penguins, corralled during their beach crossings, vaccinated and microchipped, two days after the colony's first confirmed death. The penguin parade stays open

  Agriculture VictoriaVIC
• 15 Aug 2026
  NSW confirms its fifth case, a crested tern at Snug Cove in Eden's harbour, closing the coastal gap between Narooma and Lakes Entrance to under 250 km. An enhanced surveillance area is set around Eden for a month, and NSW names little penguins and regent honeyeaters as its priority species for captive vaccination with Taronga. The release surfaced in the 21 Aug sweep

  NSW GovernmentNSW
• 15 Aug 2026
  A Phillip Island little penguin is found dead of H5N1, the first case in the colony at the centre of every Australian risk assessment and the ninth wild bird species. Victoria reaches 74 with terns at Lakes Entrance, its furthest east detection, and Dromana, its first inside Port Phillip Bay. The chief veterinary officer says conditions are conducive to spread that would bring large losses of wildlife

  Victorian CVOVIC
• 15 Aug 2026
  Tasmania reaches four cases in three days: two further crested terns from the same King Island site return positive tests, joining Friday's tern and the CSIRO-confirmed Rocky Cape skua. Three positives at one Bass Strait site reads as local circulation on the crossing between Victoria and Tasmania

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 14 Aug 2026
  The eighth wild bird species: a fluttering shearwater is among 11 new Victorian detections, taking the state to 71, mostly along the south-west coast at Warrnambool, near Apollo Bay and Port Fairy. Shearwaters are the family at the centre of spring mass-mortality fears, with millions of short-tailed shearwaters due back from September

  Agriculture VictoriaVIC
• 14 Aug 2026
  Tasmania becomes the sixth affected state: the Rocky Cape brown skua appears on DAFF's national event board, leaving only the NT and ACT untouched. Within the same day, Tasmania reports a second bird, a crested tern near Currie on King Island in Bass Strait, state-lab positive and awaiting national confirmation, with two more terns from the same location in testing

  DAFFTAS
• 14 Aug 2026
  The national dashboard stops publishing negative test events, two days after switching to event-based reporting: only positive events, 205 as at 4pm AEST 14 August, and hotline reports remain. The surveillance denominator, how much testing finds nothing, is no longer public

  DAFFAU
• 13 Aug 2026
  The poultry vaccination door opens a crack: Agriculture Minister Julie Collins says vaccinating poultry, as Asia does, is not something the government is ruling out. The Melbourne Show's poultry exhibits are cancelled, as is the Royal Hobart Poultry and Pigeon Show, and a UQ virologist warns bird flu could be the factor that tips an isolated Australian species into extinction

  ABC 7.30AU
• 13 Aug 2026
  Perth Zoo reveals an Australia-first bird flu vaccination study, running quietly since May on its three threatened black cockatoo species: Carnaby's, Baudin's and forest red-tailed. The trial monitors adverse reactions and protection, part of the safety work behind the national captive-species rollout

  Perth ZooWA
• 13 Aug 2026
  Tasmania details its wildlife defence: about 350 orange-bellied parrots will be vaccinated at the Five Mile Beach breeding centre from around September, while little penguins get habitat and pest work because wild birds cannot meet the two-dose permit conditions. Albatross Island, where 40 percent of shy albatross breed, lies about 100 km from the Rocky Cape detection

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 13 Aug 2026
  Tasmania reports its first positive: a brown skua found dead at Rocky Cape on the north-west coast, positive at the state laboratory in Launceston and awaiting CSIRO confirmation. Once confirmed, Tasmania becomes the sixth state and only the NT and ACT remain untouched. The state calls it a single case, not an outbreak, and will vaccinate about 350 orange-bellied parrots

  NRE TasmaniaTAS
• 12 Aug 2026
  The national count changes basis: DAFF stops reporting individual detections, freezing that series at two hundred and thirty-six, and switches to event-based reporting with 151 confirmed events, 1,307 negative events and 18,118 hotline reports. Individual detection numbers are no longer the most meaningful indicator, the department says; detection counts now come only from state agencies

  DAFFAU
• 12 Aug 2026
  Victoria adds 7 cases to reach 60 and the map moves inland and east: greater crested terns at Mildura on the Murray, the deepest inland detection in Australia, at Hamilton, Hawkesdale, Warrnambool, St Andrews Beach on the Mornington Peninsula, and at Seal Rocks on Phillip Island, beside the fur seal colony and the penguin colony slated for vaccination

  Agriculture VictoriaVIC
• 12 Aug 2026
  Victoria details the largest wild-bird vaccination attempted anywhere: up to 5,000 little penguins at Phillip Island and St Kilda will be corralled during their daily migrations, vaccinated, microchipped and re-caught for a second dose three to four weeks later. Worst-case modelling puts a six-week Phillip Island outbreak at 8,000 to 16,000 penguin deaths

  ABC ScienceVIC
• 12 Aug 2026
  ACDP scientists brief the media on the genomics: about six or seven separate introductions into Australia, all traced to Heard Island, with the Victorian and South Australian spread stemming from a single introduction. Livestock spillover would need an ecological perfect storm, and the US dairy-cattle genotypes have not been detected outside that country

  CSIRO ACDPAU
• 11 Aug 2026
  Australia announces H5 vaccination for captive native birds, starting within days and weeks with endangered species in conservation breeding programs, after 18 months of unannounced safety trials. Wild birds will be vaccinated where possible; no available vaccine suits mammals. The government will also move from daily case updates to reporting major events such as mass mortalities

  DAFFAU
• 11 Aug 2026
  South Australia reports 33 new suspect cases including a peregrine falcon, which would be the first bird of prey in the outbreak if confirmed. It is the state's first published testing-queue figure since 5 August

  SA GovernmentSA
• 10 Aug 2026
  Victoria announces a 500,000 dollar wildlife-sector support package: 250,000 dollars for frontline rescuers and shelters and 250,000 dollars for Wildlife Victoria, covering protective equipment, biosecurity supplies, testing support and quarantine access

  VIC GovernmentVIC
• 10 Aug 2026
  A cormorant at Carpenter Rocks becomes the seventh wild bird species of the outbreak, among 11 new South Australian detections that take the national tally to 231 as at 1pm AEST. A silver gull at Glenelg is the second detection on metropolitan Adelaide's most visited beach

  DAFFSA
• 9 Aug 2026
  Five greater crested terns are confirmed at Carpenter Rocks on the Limestone Coast, the whole of the day's national movement, taking the tally to 220

  DAFFSA
• 8 Aug 2026
  NSW records its first cases in native birds: two greater crested terns, one near Narooma on the south coast and one near Wentworth in far west NSW. The Wentworth bird, at the junction of the Murray and Darling rivers, is the furthest-inland detection in Australia and the first in the Murray-Darling Basin

  NSW GovernmentNSW
• 8 Aug 2026
  The day adds 40 detections nationally, the second-largest daily rise of the outbreak: 28 in South Australia across the Limestone Coast and Kangaroo Island including the new localities of Cape Douglas, Eight Mile Creek, Haines and Penneshaw, plus the two NSW birds and 10 more in Victoria including Clyde in south-east Melbourne. The tally closes at 215

  DAFFAU
• 7 Aug 2026
  Victoria becomes the first Australian jurisdiction to order a mandatory poultry lockdown: owners of 50 or more birds in metropolitan Melbourne and coastal areas must house them for an initial 14 days. The order follows 20 further Victorian detections and new localities at Yambuk, Apollo Bay and Clyde, heading east across the state

  Agriculture VictoriaVIC
• 7 Aug 2026
  The Royal Adelaide Show cancels all bird and poultry exhibits at the September show, the first large-scale event cancellation of the outbreak, affecting about 150 exhibitors. The Port Lincoln Show withdraws poultry the same week

  RAHSSA
• 7 Aug 2026
  The national tally reaches 155 confirmed detections as at 11am AEST, a rise of 32 in a day and the largest single-day movement of the outbreak. All 32 are in South Australia, taking the state to 119

  DAFFAU
• 7 Aug 2026
  CSIRO confirms 12 greater crested terns at Port MacDonnell and 10 at Beachport, the two largest single-site events of the outbreak. Port MacDonnell sits about 20 km from the Victorian border, joining the South Australian and Victorian clusters into one affected stretch of coast

  DAFFAU
• 7 Aug 2026
  Three silver gulls are confirmed at Southend, the largest silver gull event so far. The gull is a scavenger that moves inland to tips, parks and urban wetlands, a different exposure pathway from the coastal tern colonies

  DAFFAU
• 7 Aug 2026
  Vaccinating wildlife becomes a live debate. Australia is running pilot studies of an avian influenza vaccine in non-poultry birds, while New Zealand has already vaccinated about 300 breeding birds across five species using a different vaccine. Experts disagree publicly on whether it is feasible here

  AAPAU
• 6 Aug 2026
  University of Sydney genomics researchers argue the federal susceptibility index omits immune-gene diversity, so threatened species may be more vulnerable than it shows. The orange-bellied parrot is down to 86 birds in the wild

  The ConversationAU
• 6 Aug 2026
  On Heard Island, an Australian sub-Antarctic territory, about 13,000 of 17,000 elephant seal pups have died since the virus arrived around August 2025. Pup mortality reached 97 per cent in one area. Environment Minister Murray Watt names Tasmanian devils and quolls as scavenging mammals at risk

  AFRAU
• 6 Aug 2026
  A seal pup dies at Warrnambool in south-west Victoria and the state environment department investigates whether H5 was involved. It is the fourth Australian mammal under investigation and the first in Victoria. No Australian mammal has a confirmed detection

  AAPAU
• 6 Aug 2026
  MILESTONE: a magpie is confirmed in Victoria, the first Australian detection in a terrestrial bird rather than a seabird or shorebird. It came among 16 Victorian detections signed off by CSIRO, and Agriculture Victoria had listed the bird as an inconclusive result the day before

  DAFFAU
• 6 Aug 2026
  The national tally reaches 123 confirmed detections as at 11am AEST, a rise of 22 in a day. Victoria goes from 7 to 23 after CSIRO confirms 16 birds near Portland and Nelson, and South Australia adds 6 greater crested terns to reach 87

  DAFFAU
• 6 Aug 2026
  South Australia's 6 new detections are each given a site, at Port Victoria, Port Vincent, Pullen Island at Port Elliot, Kangaroo Island, Southend and Pelican Point. Port Victoria is the first on the west coast of the Yorke Peninsula and Pullen Island returns the virus to the Fleurieu, where the state's first case was found

  DAFFAU
• 5 Aug 2026
  MILESTONE: eradication of H5 in wildlife is formally abandoned. The Commonwealth, states and territories activate a cost-shared National Management Agreement to manage the disease in wildlife long term, with a further 24 million dollars, and the Agriculture Minister concedes it is more likely than not the virus reaches agriculture

  Farm WeeklyAU
• 5 Aug 2026
  The national tally reaches 101 confirmed detections as at 8am AEST, with 81 in South Australia after a batch of 23 greater crested terns confirmed on 4 August across Southend, Robe, Harriet River, Seal Bay, Vivonne Bay and D'Estrees Bay

  DAFFAU
• 5 Aug 2026
  A federal risk assessment scores about 300 native species and subspecies at high to extreme risk, with five birds at extreme risk and 66 at very high risk including the little penguin, Australian sea lion, fur seal and orca

  Farm WeeklyAU
• 5 Aug 2026
  Phillip Island prepares for its colony of more than 40,000 little penguins. Nature Parks has an active response plan and increased monitoring, and Victoria's chief veterinary officer says trials show penguins can be vaccinated without adverse effects, though no decision has been made on using it before the virus arrives

  ABC NewsVIC
• 5 Aug 2026
  Economists warn a spread into poultry and dairy would feed into inflation, the first macroeconomic framing of the outbreak. Australia's poultry industries are worth 5.5 billion dollars and planning scenarios run to costs in the billions

  AFRAU
• 4 Aug 2026
  The ACCC extends its pause on enforcing free-range egg labelling, so producers housing hens indoors for biosecurity can keep the label, as the regulator warns the risk to domestic poultry is growing

  ABC RuralAU
• 3 Aug 2026
  MILESTONE: CSIRO testing confirms Australia's first mass mortality event in wildlife, in greater crested terns at Baudin Rocks. The national tally reaches 78 and the Agriculture Minister warns Australians to expect more spread and larger numbers of wildlife affected

  ABC NewsSA
• 3 Aug 2026
  A second suspected mass mortality event is reported in Victoria, a cluster of dead and sick terns in the Glenelg River estuary near Nelson and across Lawrence Rocks, with results pending

  The GuardianVIC
• 3 Aug 2026
  A petrel is confirmed in the Coorong, a Ramsar wetland of national importance for waterbirds, and six terns on the Pages Islands, home to the largest breeding colony of the endangered Australian sea lion

  PIRSASA
• 3 Aug 2026
  National tally reaches 62 confirmed detections at 9am. CSIRO confirms six positives in Victoria, four at Portland and two at Nelson Bay, and two in South Australia

  DAFFAU
• 3 Aug 2026
  A greater crested tern at Monarto is confirmed, the first inland detection of the outbreak, in an area home to several poultry farms

  DAFFSA
• 2 Aug 2026
  Health Minister Mark Butler says officials are concerned at the rise in cases but Australia is well prepared, with significant talks under way with the poultry industry

  ABC NewsAU
• 1 Aug 2026
  The silver gull becomes the second Australian native species to catch H5, confirmed at Robe. BirdLife Australia warns it is the species most likely to carry the virus inland and into cities

  ABC News / The GuardianSA
• 1 Aug 2026
  BirdLife Australia calls it a very bleak milestone and the Invasive Species Council says the outbreak is mirroring South America, where early detections were followed by rapid spread and mass mortality

  The GuardianAU
• 31 Jul 2026
  Aerial surveillance finds 49 dead and 35 sick greater crested terns on Baudin Rocks near Cape Jaffa, the suspected first mass mortality event of the Australian outbreak

  ABC News / The GuardianSA
• 30 Jul 2026
  Victoria becomes the fifth state to detect H5, in a greater crested tern near Portland, and enacts its State Emergency Animal Disease Response Plan

  ABC News / The NightlyVIC
• 30 Jul 2026
  CSIRO confirms South Australia's 15th case, a giant petrel at Port Lincoln, the first detection on the Eyre Peninsula and the 28th nationally

  DAFF / ABC NewsSA
• 30 Jul 2026
  South Australia reports 13 further suspected cases, including five more at Seal Bay on Kangaroo Island, taking its suspected count to 24 birds

  The GuardianSA
• 29 Jul 2026
  Australia confirms its first local transmission of H5, between greater crested terns resident in South Australia, after CSIRO testing and sequencing

  news.com.au / ReutersSA
• 29 Jul 2026
  The Chief Veterinary Officer says there are limited feasible actions to contain the spread in the natural environment, as conservation groups call for a $200m wildlife resilience fund

  The Sydney Morning HeraldAustralia
• 29 Jul 2026
  South Australia reports 11 further suspected H5 cases, seven in the South East and four on Kangaroo Island, and says local transmission between Australian birds is very likely

  ABC NewsSA
• 29 Jul 2026
  On-beach tours at Seal Bay are paused to protect the endangered Australian sea lion colony, the first public-access restriction of the outbreak

  ABC NewsSA
• 29 Jul 2026
  Queensland poultry producers step up biosecurity after the state's first case, with authorities confirming eggs and chicken remain safe to eat

  ABC RuralQLD
• 28 Jul 2026
  All seven suspected Limestone Coast cases are confirmed, taking the national tally to 27, as SA commits to helicopter and drone surveillance for sick wildlife

  7NEWSSA
• 28 Jul 2026
  SA ministers warn the country may have to learn to live with H5, with detections possible for months or years to come

  Yorke Peninsula Country TimesSA
• 27 Jul 2026
  South Australia reports seven new suspected H5 cases, all greater crested terns on the Limestone Coast, with five at one site near Beachport prompting testing for local transmission

  ABC / GuardianSA
• 26 Jul 2026
  First H5 case on an Australian metropolitan beach, a greater crested tern at Semaphore in Adelaide, as a second tern is confirmed near Robe and SA rises to seven cases

  ABC NewsSA
• 25 Jul 2026
  CSIRO confirms Queensland's first H5 case, the petrel found on Moreton Island, making it the fourth affected state

  Brisbane Times / CSIROQLD
• 24 Jul 2026
  Queensland records its first suspected H5 case, a petrel on Moreton Island, as the outbreak reaches a fourth state

  ABC / QLD GovQLD
• 22 Jul 2026
  A dead dolphin at Albany is tested for H5N1, a second potential cetacean case

  The WestWA
• 19 Jul 2026
  National tally rises to 17 as voluntary free-range housing advice is extended

  The Weekly TimesNational
• 17 Jul 2026
  A humpback whale calf at Cronulla is sampled as a potential first cetacean case

  NineNSW
• 16 Jul 2026
  NSW confirms a second case at Hawks Nest as the national tally reaches 15

  ABC NewsNSW
• 15 Jul 2026
  WA rises to eight cases with presumed-positive petrels at Lancelin and Denmark

  The West AustralianWA
• 13 Jul 2026
  A sick petrel at Noosa is tested for a possible first Queensland case, later negative

  ABC NewsQLD
• 10 Jul 2026
  First H5N1 in a native Australian seabird, a greater crested tern at Robe, SA

  ABC / ReutersSA
• 08 Jul 2026
  SA confirms a second case as WA reports suspect detections at Horrocks and Mullaloo

  ABC NewsSA / WA
• 06 Jul 2026
  Perth metro case upgraded to presumed positive as BirdLife calls for resilience funding

  WA GovernmentWA
• 04 Jul 2026
  NSW confirms its first case, the third state and the first on the east coast

  Reuters / ABCNSW
• 30 Jun 2026
  Fifth case confirmed near Esperance as WOAH acknowledges Australia’s notification

  The West AustralianWA
• 27 Jun 2026
  Fourth case confirmed as native ducks are flagged threatened and Minister Watt warns on the economy

  SBS NewsWA
• 24 Jun 2026
  Third case confirmed in SA as PNG bans Australian poultry and egg imports

  ABC NewsSA
• 22 Jun 2026
  Inghams locks down its WA poultry farms and its shares fall about 14%

  news.com.auWA
• 21 Jun 2026
  Scientists call the arrival a genuine wildlife emergency for Australia

  The GuardianNational
• 20 Jun 2026
  First H5N1 on mainland Australia, a brown skua and giant petrel at Cape Le Grand NP

  ABC NewsWA
• 19 Jun 2026
  First suspected H5N1 case reported in Western Australia

  The GuardianWA

Key Events 7 entries

• 27 Aug 2026
  Federal animal health reporting resumes after nearly 30 days of silence, and the numbers it releases show new dairy herd infections falling for a second year: 917 herds in 2024, 171 in 2025 and 85 so far in 2026. Three herds were confirmed in the past month, two in Texas and one in Utah. The largest poultry loss was 29,700 birds at a South Dakota breeding operation.

  CIDRAPNational
• 2025 to 2026
  Dairy outbreak entrenches at about 973 herds across 17 states as the human tally reaches 71 with 2 deaths

  CDC / CIDRAP
• Oct 2024
  CDC confirms a third human case in California

  CDCCalifornia
• May 2024
  H5N1 found in New York City wild birds as the CDC publishes influenza-A wastewater data

  Forbes / ReutersNew York
• Apr 2024
  USDA mandates testing and tracking of dairy-cattle movements

  CNN
• Mar 2024
  First H5N1 in dairy cattle in Texas and Kansas opens a mammalian reservoir

  USDA / APHIS
• 2022
  H5N1 (2.3.4.4b) establishes in US wild birds and poultry as mass culling begins

  WHO / USDA

Key Events 4 entries

• Jun 2026
  Avian influenza prevention zone lifted on 4 June as the season eases

  DefraUnited Kingdom
• Apr 2026
  Mandatory housing orders lifted on 9 April

  DefraUnited Kingdom
• 2026
  World’s first H5N1 infection in a sheep is reported on a poultry-outbreak farm

  APHAUnited Kingdom
• 2025/26
  Around 100 confirmed H5N1 cases across the season, most of them in England

  Defra / APHAUnited Kingdom

Key Events 3 entries

• 2026 season
  Poland records the most outbreaks in the EU, ahead of France and the Netherlands

  EFSA / ECDCEU
• 27 Jun 2024
  Finland begins human bird-flu vaccinations, a world first

  ReutersFinland
• 10 Jun 2024
  EU secures 40 million avian-flu vaccine doses across member states

  ReutersEU

Key Events 6 entries

• 26 Aug 2026
  MPI's situation update holds New Zealand at three confirmed detections, with no evidence of mass mortality in wildlife and none in poultry. The ministry has published owner-facing guidance for backyard flocks and pet birds, covering how to reduce contact with wild birds, keep feed and water uncontaminated, and keep cats and dogs away from sick or dead wildlife.

  MPINational
• 21 Aug 2026
  Third New Zealand case, a northern giant petrel found dead on a remote Cape Palliser beach by a Department of Conservation ranger. Samples reached the national laboratory on 14 August but the bird carried a low level of virus, so confirmation took several rounds of testing. MPI put staff on the Wairarapa coastline the next day for precautionary checks.

  RNZWairarapa
• 17 Jul 2026
  Second case is a native kāhu (swamp harrier), the first NZ native bird infected

  ABC NewsWairarapa
• 17 Jul 2026
  MPI says H5N1 is likely to become endemic within months

  RNZNational
• 17 Jul 2026
  Mainland Poultry, the largest egg producer, locks down more than 550,000 hens

  NZ HeraldNational
• 15 Jul 2026
  First NZ case, a brown skua at Petone Beach near Wellington

  ABC / RNZWellington