Sydney – Scientists have detected the H5 strain of bird flu in Australia for the first time, the country’s agriculture minister said Saturday, meaning the highly contagious variant has now spread to every continent.
Julie Collins told a news conference the disease had been found in a migratory sea bird, a brown skua, in remote Western Australia, and the result confirmed by the national science agency.
Samples from another sick bird, a giant petrel found in the same area, had also shown a suspected positive result, she said.
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