<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/25/australia-has-just-12000-sea-lions-left-and-carnage-may-await-them-as-bird-flu-takes-hold-scientists-warn>
"Scientists have warned deadly H5 bird flu could cause “carnage” for
Australia’s seal and sea lion populations after detection of the virus in
long-nosed fur seals in South Australia.
SA confirmed Australia’s first case in a mainland mammal on Saturday after a
dead long-nosed fur seal found at Beachport on the Limestone Coast tested
positive for H5N1.
The state government announced a second suspected case on Monday in a dead
long-nosed fur seal found on the Pages Islands, off Kangaroo Island, with
results from CSIRO testing pending.
John Woinarski, a leading mammal scientist at Charles Darwin University, said
he feared the virus would quickly start affecting more seals and sea lions.
“The carnage may be substantial and represent a serious conservation impact,”
he said.
“I fear for Australian sea lions in particular because of their small
population size.
“It’s likely in the next few weeks it will spread more quickly into the sea
lion population in South Australia generally because of the proximity of the
sea lion colonies to breeding seabird colonies or affected seabirds.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
