South Australia confirms second H5 bird flu case in petrel

South Australia has recorded its second confirmed detection of H5 bird flu, in a giant petrel found on the state's Yorke Peninsula.

The migratory seabird was found at Hardwicke Bay, approximately 104 kilometres west of Adelaide, on Friday and was sent for further testing after results from a state lab revealed a low viral load.

Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven said testing was also underway into an additional two suspected cases.

She said two birds were collected on Monday, one from Port Vincent on the Yorke Peninsula and the second from Emu Bay on Kangaroo Island.

Samples from both birds have been sent to the CSIRO's Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong for further analysis.

"We are continuing to act early and prepare carefully, while asking the community to remain vigilant and report any sick or dead birds or wildlife," Ms Scriven said.

The government has also stressed that bird flu has not been detected in commercial poultry or any non-migratory wild birds in SA, nor has it become established in any part of Australia.

New cases in WA

Meanwhile, WA has recorded two more suspected cases of H5 bird flu in wild migratory seabirds.

One of the dead petrels was found at Horrocks Beach, north of Geraldton, and another at Mullaloo Beach in Perth’s metropolitan area.

Both cases tested positive for the H5 virus in preliminary WA testing and the samples are now being sent to the CSIRO for confirmation.

As well as SA, other cases across the country include one confirmed case of the highly contagious bird flu in New South Wales and five cases in Western Australia.

Coastal survey

The confirmation of the second SA case comes after the largest aerial survey in more than four decades of South Australia's coastline, islands and reefs.

Ms Scriven said the survey is the first of many and was conducted across two and a half days using helicopters, a fixed wing plane, remote-control drones and field crews on the ground.

She said the rapid surveillance operation recorded more than 30,000 seabirds and seals from about 600 locations, including 85 islands, islets and reefs between the Head of Bight and The Pages, east of Kangaroo Island.

"Encouragingly, over 5000 kilometres of surveillance has shown that we don't have widespread mortalities in either birds or in wildlife," Ms Scriven said.

"That is encouraging and speaks to the fact that these are still isolated incidents."

The minister said the aerial surveys also targeted other remote areas in the state, including Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, the Riverland, the Lower Lakes and the Coorong.