Tasmania confirms H5 bird flu in elephant seal and kelp gull on Macquarie Island

Tasmanian officials have confirmed H5 avian influenza in a southern elephant seal and a kelp gull found on Macquarie Island, the state’s environment minister said.

Guy Barnett, Tasmania’s Minister for Environment and Climate Change, told authorities and the public that laboratory testing of samples brought off the sub-Antarctic island returned positive results for the H5 strain. The detection marks the first recorded H5 finding in a marine mammal within Tasmanian jurisdiction, according to the reporting in Streamline Verified.

Samples taken from the two animals were carried from Macquarie Island with expedition personnel returning to the mainland and were then tested off-island, the outlet reported.

Following those results, federal authorities have run tests on other bird species on the island; Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins told parliament that swabs from skuas, giant petrels and penguins had come back negative. The government has not reported positive results in those species to date.

Officials said there are no signs of a mass mortality event among the island’s wildlife so far, but surveillance has been stepped up in response to the confirmed H5 detections.

Streamline Verified noted that the discovery prompted intensified monitoring and that federal testing continues as authorities seek to establish the extent of the outbreak and any additional infected animals.

The outlet also reported that earlier in 2026 authorities removed some personnel from Macquarie Island because of concerns about the psychological effect on staff who might witness mass wildlife deaths.

Streamline Verified referenced larger, earlier H5N1 outbreaks in other regions that have caused heavy losses among marine mammals, but the current Tasmanian account confines confirmed positives to the elephant seal and the kelp gull diagnosed from samples taken on the island.

Federal and state officials are maintaining targeted testing and surveillance on the island; Streamline Verified reported those official statements as the source of the information. The reporting did not list any confirmed human cases linked to the island detections, and it did not provide further numeric casualty counts for wildlife beyond the two positive samples.

Macquarie Island remains under closer observation by Tasmanian and federal agencies while laboratory analysis continues and additional testing of returned samples is completed, the outlet said. Authorities have emphasised testing and monitoring as the immediate steps being taken after the confirmed H5 results.