Lisa Cox
South Australia has confirmed its first H5 bird flu case in an endangered Australian sea lion.
The sea lion was found dead by a state government ranger at Seal Bay at Kangaroo Island on Friday.
The animal had sustained a shark wound three months prior and was already being monitored. The government said it was confident the shark wound was not the cause of death and tests had returned a strong positive result for H5 bird flu.
The government said there had been no other known endangered sea lion deaths at seal bay but it was monitoring the population closely.
Seal Bay has an estimated 800 resident Australian sea lions, the third largest single colony for the species and about 5% of the total population. About three quarters of Australia’s sea lion population lives in South Australia.
Scientists had warned of the potential “carnage” in the Australian sea lion population if bird flu takes hold, after the virus had already impacted seal populations in South America and sub-Antarctica.
SA confirmed Australia’s first case in a mainland mammal in August after a dead long-nosed fur seal found at Beachport on the Limestone Coast tested positive for H5N1.
John Woinarski, a leading mammal scientist at Charles Darwin University, said at the time he feared the virus could 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.”
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