More than 24k calls for bird flu in Australia, Agriculture Minister reveals

More than 24,000 calls have been placed to Australia’s bird flu hotline since the outbreak began, as authorities crackdown on the country’s biosecurity threats.

Since June 2026, more than 200 cases of H5N1 bird flu have been reported across six states, including a little penguin killed on Phillip Island in Victoria.

A vaccination program is now underway to protect some of Australia’s most at-risk species, including little penguins and other animals in captivity.

Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said the high number of calls “underscores the role all Australians play in helping to protect our way of life”.

Australia’s biosecurity response to bird flu, which authorities admit they will not be able to stop, has been driven by community surveillance, beginning with the first cases located on a remote cape in Western Australia in June.

“This effort of course is backed by our incredible biosecurity officers across the country who work tirelessly at our borders and in airports and mail centres to keep threats out,” Ms Collins said.

“We’ve delivered over $2bn in additional biosecurity resourcing since 2022 to back this effort because our government will never compromise on biosecurity.”

This week, authorities are marking National Biosecurity Week – a week-long, awareness raising blitz.

Between January 1 and July 31, more than 195,000 interceptions of biosecurity goods were lodged at Australian airports. A further 53,000 intercepts were made at the country’s mail centres.

Of those, more than 70,000 detections were made after an X-ray of travellers baggage and detector dog teams, stopping more than 23,000 items entering Australia.

Among the items stopped by officers were seeds concealed with pill capsules and chewing gum containers.

A single passenger was also stopped after allegedly arriving with more than 11kg of meat and fresh, while another allegedly falsely declared fresh succulent plants as “desktop decorations”.

In July, a Victorian man was convicted over the import and attempted import of exotic animals, including Burmese pythons, ball pythons, albino softshell turtles, iguanas and tarantulas over a 12 month period.

Originally published as More than 24k calls for bird flu in Australia, Agriculture Minister reveals