Seabird found on Wellington beach tests positive for H5 bird flu
New Zealand authorities have detected the H5N1 bird flu strain in a single brown skua found on a Wellington beach. Officials state there is no evidence of mass mortality or transmission to poultry, and the risk to the public remains low.
Why it matters
The detection marks the arrival of a globally circulating virus in New Zealand, prompting biosecurity monitoring to protect the country's poultry industry and wildlife.
Bird flu has been detected in New Zealand.
The H5 bird flu strain has been circulating globally, with more than a dozen cases reported in Australia since it was detected there last month.
Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard said a single ocean-going seabird - a brown skua - returned a positive test for H5N1 bird flu on Wednesday after it was found on Petone Beach in Wellington.
There was a low health risk to the public, he said, as it rarely affected humans unless there was direct, close, and prolonged contact with large numbers of sick birds.
Hoggard said eggs and poultry remained safe to eat.
"There is no evidence of any mass mortality in wildlife or transmission between wild birds in New Zealand. There has been no detection in poultry," he said.
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