CANBERRA, Aug 24 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- South Australian authorities on Monday reported a second suspected case of H5N1 bird flu in a seal, one day after the state reported Australia's first case in a mammal, according to Xinhua.
South Australia's Department of Primary Industries and Regions said on Monday that the long-nosed fur seal was found at the Pages Conservation Park, a protected area consisting of the North Page and South Page islands located about 18 kilometres off the state's south coast.
The department said that samples have been sent to the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness for confirmatory testing.
It comes after the federal government on Sunday announced that Australia's first confirmed case of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza strain in a mammal had been confirmed in a long-nosed fur seal found dead in mainland South Australia on Wednesday.
South Australian Minister for Climate, Environment and Water Emily Bourke said that the two cases were incredibly concerning. The state government on Thursday said that over 1,000 birds had been found dead in suspected H5N1 mass mortality events on three islands, including North Page and South Page.
"We've seen devastation in seals around the world when it comes to bird flu," Bourke told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio on Monday.
According to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Page islands are home to one of three large colonies of endangered Australian sea lions in South Australia. The Invasive Species Council has warned that the H5N1 outbreak could be an extinction-level event for the species.
Bourke said that the strain circulating in South Australia potentially arrived in the state from Heard Island, a remote sub-Antarctic Australian territory.
The Australian Antarctic Programme said in June that around 13,000 of the estimated 17,000 elephant seal pups on Heard Island had died from H5N1 avian influenza.
Federal Minister for the Environment and Water Murray Watt told ABC television on Monday that the cases in seals were not unexpected and authorities expect to see more mass mortality events.
-- BERNAMA-XINHUA
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