Authorities report first suspected H5N1 bird flu case on Australia's east coast

Authorities in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) said on Friday that they have detected the first suspected case of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza on the country's east coast.



Tara Moriarty, NSW's minister for agriculture, told reporters that preliminary testing of samples taken from a migratory giant petrel that was found sick near the small coastal town of Hawks Nest, 165 km northeast of Sydney, returned a positive result for the highly pathogenic strain.



She said that the samples have been sent to the national science agency for confirmatory testing. If confirmed, it would be the sixth case of the H5N1 strain on the Australian mainland and the first on the east coast.



All five previous cases were detected in migratory birds in June, with four in Western Australia (WA) and one in South Australia (SA).



Moriarty said on Friday that the state government has notified the poultry industry about the suspected case.



"We haven't had any reports of the poultry industry being impacted," she said.



"So there's no need to panic, keep buying eggs, keep buying chicken."