H5N1 bird flu confirmed in Wellington seabird, first NZ case recorded

After years of preparing for its arrival, New Zealand has confirmed its first case of the H5N1 bird flu strain in a wild seabird, with authorities warning the virus’ potential impact on the country’s unique native birdlife remains unknown.

Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard said a single ocean-going seabird, a brown skua, found on Petone Beach in Wellington returned a confirmed positive test for H5 bird flu today.

The detection marks the arrival of H5N1 in New Zealand, a virus that has spread rapidly around the world, causing mass die-offs among wild birds, seals and sea lions, as well as devastating poultry flocks.

While officials say there is no evidence it has spread beyond the single seabird, Hoggard acknowledged it remained “an unknown risk to our native birds at this stage”.

“This is a coastal detection in an individual ocean-going seabird, and there is no evidence of any mass mortality in wildlife or transmission between wild birds in New Zealand,” the minister said.

“The situation is being closely monitored, but at this stage there is no evidence of any illness beyond this seabird. We’ve had people out on Petone Beach checking and found no other issues. We will continue to monitor the beach and surrounding areas.”

Mary van Andel of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said New Zealand’s unique birdlife and marine mammals made it difficult to predict how the virus might behave if it spread, making preparedness critical.

Australia has recently recorded isolated H5 bird flu detections in coastal birds without widespread outbreaks, and Hoggard said New Zealand could see a similar pattern.

Infected bird found last week

Van Andel said the infected bird was found five days ago but was tested two days later after staff at Wellington Zoo noticed it was behaving unusually.

“The bird wasn’t showing any clinical signs of illness, but once it got to the Wellington Zoo, they assessed the bird and felt it should be tested. It wasn’t reacting as you’d expect a wild bird to do.”

She said vaccination programmes for vulnerable species were already underway, with critically endangered birds receiving intensive management.

The risk to humans was very low unless there was direct, close and prolonged contact with large numbers of sick birds, van Andel said.

“In the cases overseas, it’s mostly in humans who are working with very dense populations of animals, like in chicken sheds, those types of things.”

Hoggard reiterated that the virus “is not a human health issue”.

“As long as you do not touch birds or have lots of contact with them, the risk is very low.”

Anyone who finds three or more sick or dead wild birds together is asked to report them to MPI on 0800 80 99 66.

People are advised not to handle or move the birds, and to provide photographs and as much location information as possible when making a report.

‘We’re as prepared as we possibly can be’ - Hoggard

Hoggard said New Zealand had spent years preparing for the virus and was in a strong position to respond.

“We’ve had that preparation well in place and have been doing a lot of work with the poultry sector,” he said.

“MPI’s on-farm team has also been helping poultry farmers strengthen their biosecurity plans. In terms of being prepared, we’re as prepared as we possibly can be.”

While eggs and poultry remain safe to eat, Hoggard said, the biggest risk would come if the virus reached commercial flocks, potentially reducing egg and chicken meat supplies.

“That’s why we’ve been working with the industry for a good couple of years now to make sure plans are in place.”

He said poultry farmers should minimise contact between their birds and wild birds, particularly ducks, by improving biosecurity around free-range operations and barns.

Surveillance would remain the key to limiting any spread.

“There’s not some sudden change. There will be more testing, but by and large it’s carrying on with the same work with the industry that we’ve been doing so far.”

Poultry industry prepared

Poultry Industry Association executive director Fiona MacMillan told Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB that, on a scale of one to 10, her level of concern about the current bird flu situation was a five.

“Trying to avoid being worried. I’m being watchful,” MacMillan said.

She said bird flu could be devastating, but they had been preparing for this situation for “quite some time”.

She said in a sense, this detection did not change anything.

“We’ve done the work on biosecurity, we’re going to keep doing the work on biosecurity, so that process just has to continue.”

MacMillan said MPI and the Department of Conservation (DoC) would be keeping a close eye on the situation.

“If [the public are] out there and they see sick birds or groups of dead birds, follow MPI’s advice. You’re doing everyone a favour by reporting that sort of thing,” she said.

MacMillan compared the current situation to preparing for a school exam.

“You can do all the work, you can study really hard, but you still don’t know what’s going to happen when exam season hits,” she said.

Wellington Zoo announces precautions

Wellington Zoo said it would no longer accept or admit any injured birds to Te Kōhanga The Nest – an animal hospital on its premises.

All close encounters with kororā (little blue penguins) have been called off.

The zoo said on social media that it remained open for all visitors and there was no risk to people.

“Our teams have put extra protections in place to keep both our animals and people safe,” it said.

Last month, DoC announced it would vaccinate some of New Zealand’s most threatened native birds against bird flu as a precaution.

About 300 core breeding birds across kākāpō, takahē, tchūriwat’/tūturuatu/shore plovers, kakī/black stilts and kākāriki karaka/orange-fronted parakeets species were included in the programme.

Most are in captivity, while kākāpō and takahē are managed on offshore islands.

DoC senior science adviser and wildlife veterinarian Dr Kate McInnes said the birds were chosen because they have very small populations and depend on intensive conservation efforts for their survival.

“We’re in a unique position to be able to vaccinate some of our most vulnerable birds as a precaution before H5N1 bird flu potentially arrives here,” she said.

“We’ve seen the devastating impacts of this virus on wildlife in other parts of the world, and we want to reduce the risk to our precious native birds where we can.”