Bird flu may have reached a seal at a key breeding area

Avian Influenza

Another suspected bird flu case has occurred among fur seals, authorities say. (Supplied: Vanessa Pirotta)

In short:

A day after Australia's first case of the H5 bird flu in a mammal was confirmed, another suspected detection has occurred in a fur seal on a key breeding ground off Kangaroo Island.

The case in a long-nosed fur seal is yet to be confirmed, but was detected at the Pages Conservation Park — the site of a mass mortality event in birds.

What's next?

The Invasive Species Council says sea lions could face an "extinction-level" event if the virus takes hold in populations.

A suspected case of H5 bird flu has been detected in a seal at a key breeding ground, a day after Australia's first case of the virus in a mammal was revealed.

The suspected case in a long-nosed fur seal, which is yet to be confirmed, occurred at the Pages Conservation Park, South Australia's Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) said.

The Pages — two small islands off the Kangaroo Island coast — are the site of a mass mortality event in birds, presumed to have died from the H5 strain, which was detected last week.

The islands are an important breeding site for the endangered Australian sea lion, which the Invasive Species Council warns could face an "extinction level" event if the disease enters its colonies.

The suspected detection follows Australia's first confirmed case of the H5 bird flu in a mammal — a seal found dead at Beachport in SA's South East last week.

"The samples from new suspect events have been sent to ACDP [the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness] for confirmatory testing, with results expected to be known in the coming days," PIRSA said.

Bird flu has spread to Australian sea lion breeding grounds.

There have been five new suspected detections in the state.

"It was, I guess, horrible news last night that not only had we had our first confirmed case [in mammals] yesterday, but now we've also had that suspect case announced," SA Environment Minister Emily Bourke told 891 ABC Adelaide.

"This is incredibly concerning because we've seen devastation in seals around the world when it comes to bird flu.

"As we know, our bird flu strain has potentially come from Heard Island where we saw devastation … with around 13,500 seal pups — which is 75 per cent of the population — killed through H5 bird flu.

As part of mitigation measures, authorities have already taken the precaution of putting a pause on beach tours at Seal Bay on the south coast of Kangaroo Island, but Ms Bourke said "we also need to look at what other options are available" — including vaccination.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast about yesterday's confirmed case in a seal, Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt said it was "obviously a very serious development" but "not unexpected".

"We are likely to see more mass mortalities," he said.

"I know that is a distressing thing for Australians to hear, but we need to be realistic. This is what we've seen overseas.

US vaccine trial being monitored

As the virus spreads, vaccination of vulnerable animals has become an increasing focus of environment agencies.

In Victoria, about 1,000 little penguins on Phillip Island have received their first doses of an H5N1 vaccine.

SA Chief Veterinary Officer Skye Fruean told a parliamentary inquiry she was not aware of any commercially available vaccines approved for use in mammals.

But she said she was aware of an experimental vaccine for cattle in the US.

"It's not one that's been fully tested and certainly hasn't been tested in our Australian sea lions because they're not found in the US, obviously," Dr Fruean told ABC Radio National's Breakfast program.

"We're looking at how we might safely roll that out, but also working with our federal counterparts who are working on the regulatory approvals we need in place to actually get access to that vaccine.

Skye Fruean says authorities are monitoring developments in the US. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)

Premier Peter Malinauskas said the government was watching developments overseas.

"There are some trials that are going on in the US to see whether it can be applied to sea mammals — in this case seals — safely. That's something we're monitoring," he said.

Adelaide University wildlife veterinary expert Wayne Boardman strongly backed selective vaccination in birds.

"It's a horrible, unfolding disease. We've not seen the start of it yet," he told 891 ABC Adelaide's Mornings program.

"The first wave is going to be the worst because all the population is naive to this virus and have no antibody response.

"Obviously we can't vaccinate a lot of birds but we can vaccinate some of the managed species.

But the associate professor also said Australia was playing catch-up when it came to vaccines.

"We've had a long time to prepare and we haven't thought in too much detail about what we could do," he said.

"Why haven't we been looking and putting money into the development of vaccines that could be used for endangered species of mammals?

Deaths have occurred among greater crested terns. (ABC News: Carl Saville)

The chief executive of the Invasive Species Council, Jack Gough, said that transmission among mammals in other parts of the world had "led to high mortality rates, particularly among pups".

"For fur seals in places like Montague Island in NSW or Kangaroo Island in South Australia, where large colonies exist, we could see high death rates leading to localised colony collapses," he said in a statement.

"If it gets into Australian sea lions though, this could be an extinction-level event because fewer than 10,000 mature adults remain on Kangaroo Island and the WA coast.

Mr Gough said successive federal governments had failed to heed warnings about the virus, "and now our wildlife face a new, entirely predictable wave of devastation from bird flu".

Senator Watt said the federal government had spent $113 million on bird flu preparedness, and that another $24 million had been "activated" since the arrival of bird flu in Australia, some of which had gone towards "building up the resilience of populations of seals and sea lions".

"We have increased our funding since bird flu came to our shores," he said.

"Our government — along with states and territories — is prepared to keep investing more as the situation escalates.

The minister said that removing carcasses from mass mortalities was "being managed by different states and territories in their own ways".

"We are providing funding to some states and territories to assist with that clean-up," he said.

"In some cases, the biosecurity advice is that it is safer to leave dead animals where they are."

Kangaroo Island Mayor Michael Pengilly repeated his concerns about the spread of bird flu, but also urged caution about what he described as "doomsday" scenarios.

"The scaremongering, trying to whip it up into hysteria, is starting to worry me. It's not good for anybody, it's not good for mental health," he said.

"I'm philosophical. Of course I'm concerned — I'm not going to try and hide that at all — but we just need to be sensible about it and talk about how good it still is.

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