Sydney ¨C Scientists have detected the H5 strain of bird flu in Australia for the first time, the country¡¯s agriculture minister said Saturday, meaning the highly contagious variant has now spread to every continent.
Julie Collins told a news conference the disease had been found in a migratory sea bird, a brown skua, in remote Western Australia, and the result confirmed by the national science agency.
Samples from another sick bird, a giant petrel found in the same area, had also shown a suspected positive result, she said.
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