Beached giant petrels confirm Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has reached the Australian mainland

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has reached the Australian mainland.  At least four giant petrels Macronectes spp. and a Brown or Subantarctic Skua Catharacta antarctica found dead on Australian beaches in Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales in late June/early July 2026 have tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.  These are the first cases of the highly infectious disease being recorded on the Australian mainland – and is leading to great concern in Australia (and in New Zealand), as reflected by the large amount of growing media coverage.

One of the first giant petrels tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza on the Australian mainland, Wylie Bay beach, Western Australia, 18 June 2026.  Photograph by Lori-Ann Shibish/Esperance Wildlife Hospital and Sanctuary (click here)

Cases of HPAI have been recorded from nearly all the seabird islands in the South Atlantic and southern Indian Oceans, including Australia’s Heard Island, as has been reported regularly by ACAP Latest News.  The disease has not yet been reported from sub-Antarctic islands in the southern Pacific – Australia’s Macquarie, and the five island groups south of New Zealand – or on the New Zealand mainland.

A Southern Giant Petrel M. giganteus diagnosed with HPAI, Knights Beach, Port Elliott, South Australia, 14 June 2026, photograph from Wildlife Welfare Organisation (click here)

Latest:  “As of 3pm AEST, 10 July 2026, Australia has 12 confirmed (or presumed) detections of H5 bird flu in wild [sea]birds.  There are six confirmed in Western Australia (WA), five in South Australia (SA) and one in New South Wales (NSW)”.

This is a developing story.  ALN will continue to report on the seemingly inevitable spread of HPAI around the Southern Ocean.

For a still serious account of the situation in Australia with the arrival of HPAI view the First Dog on the Moon's cartoon of 06 July 2026.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 10 July 2026