We've pulled together all the official fact sheets and national guidelines into one place: a 20-minute audio briefing, an AI assistant you can ask your own questions, and every source document, without the noise.
Note: This is our attempt at the Vet Vault to help our followers make sense of the information overwhelm. It is, however, not an official government page.
Sick or dead wild birds (5+ in one area, or a single seabird / bird of prey): record what you see, then call the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline.
1800 675 888A clear, calm walk-through of what landed here, what it means clinically, and the practical protocols, generated from the full stack of official sources.
Covers the strain and how it arrived, why this is different from the US dairy-cattle situation, clinical signs across birds and mammals, clinic triage and PPE, the sampling protocol, safe carcass disposal, and the bigger risk coming with spring migration.
Prefer to listen in your inbox or share it? The Vet Vault link below opens the full post.
Not sure whether a case meets the testing threshold? Want the sampling or disposal steps again? Ask in plain language and get an answer drawn straight from the official Australian guidelines, fact sheets, and the webinar, with the sources cited.
Open the assistantThe webinar recording, the national H5 HPAI guidelines for vets, the AUSVETPLAN, the human-safety guidance, and the disposal advice, all linked below so you're not digging through five emails.
Jump to resourcesThe parts most likely to matter at the front desk, distilled from the briefing. Confirm specifics against the official guidelines linked below.
H5 clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype B3.2 (the Antarctic / sub-Antarctic lineage), first detected June 2026. As at 17 July: 15 detections in wild seabirds across WA, SA and NSW, now including the first in a non-migratory Australian seabird. Still no poultry detections and no mass mortality. The US dairy-cattle genotypes (B3.13, D1.1) are not here.
Sudden unexplained death; respiratory failure; severe diarrhoea; and distinctive neurological signs, twisted neck (torticollis), swimming in circles, loss of coordination. In backyard poultry, watch for a drop in egg production and cyanosis of combs, wattles and legs.
Not hazmat, standard infection prevention and control. Outdoor triage for high-risk species (seabirds, waterfowl, birds of prey). Enhanced PPE: N95/P2 mask, face shield, gown, gloves, strict hand hygiene. Indoor pet parrot? Risk is negligible.
Trigger is a disease event of 5+ sick or dead wild birds within a ~3 km radius over 14 days. For high-risk species (seabirds, birds of prey), a single death can warrant testing. This is targeted passive surveillance, not swab-everything.
Two swabs: oropharyngeal + cloacal. Into viral transport media, or sterile saline if that's all you have. Keep chilled, never frozen (ice crystals shred the viral envelope and ruin the sample). Courier as Biological Substance Category B.
Cats indoors, dogs on lead near beaches and wetlands. No raw poultry or unpasteurised milk. For a carcass on private property: PPE, inside-out double-bag, straight into an outdoor lidded bin. Never indoors, never the fridge or freezer. Soap and bleach deactivate the virus.
Every source used in the briefing. All links go to the original government or peak-body documents.
Spring migration on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway is the next thing to watch. Subscribe to The Vet Vault and we'll keep you posted, plus get our clinical conversations for vets.
