Australia has confirmed its first case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu on the mainland, meaning the highly contagious virus has now been detected on every continent, the BBC reported.
Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said the virus was found in a migratory brown skua discovered at Cape Le Grand National Park near Esperance in Western Australia.
A second suspected case involving a southern petrel is being tested, though authorities said there was no evidence of widespread bird deaths.
Australia had previously remained the only continent without a confirmed mainland H5N1 case, although the virus was detected last year on the remote Australian territories of Heard and McDonald Islands.
A recent study estimated that H5N1 killed about 13,000 of 17,000 baby seals on Heard Island, alongside unusually high penguin deaths.
Officials said emergency animal-disease authorities had convened and were checking whether the virus had spread to other wildlife populations.
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