00:01The bird was found here at Port Elliot on Knights Beach back on the 12th of June.
00:06It was actually discovered by local surfers who were here for a competition.
00:10They said they noticed it acting a bit strangely in the water and attempted to bring it into
00:15the shore.
00:15It was then retrieved by volunteers from the local wildlife welfare organisation who took
00:21it to their facility at Goolwa and then it was there for some time before it was taken
00:25for testing by our primary industries department here in South Australia.
00:29Now since that time obviously it's been discovered that it did in fact have bird flu and so the
00:34volunteers from that organisation yesterday received antiviral medication from SA Health
00:39just as a precaution.
00:41The facility has now gone into lockdown and only one member of staff will be going in
00:46and out to care for the remaining animals that are there.
00:49Premier Peter Malinowska spoke this morning about some of the concerns this has raised.
00:53The biggest issue there is the impact that bird flu or the H5 strain of bird flu could
00:59have on our native fauna or our bird life in Australia.
01:02We haven't seen any evidence of it spreading to native birds in Australia yet but that's
01:09a real risk and we don't know how that plays out.
01:11And of course one of the species that is of particular concern in this area is the Australian
01:16sea lion which has major colonies nearby on Kangaroo Island and the Pages Island and that were really
01:22severely affected by the algal bloom particularly the Pages Island where the mortality rate in
01:27pops during the last breeding season leapt by around 30%.
01:31The next part of the project in Queensland is an Australian sea lion which has beenTEAM.
01:32The final part of the project was rated in a state of its parkour Island and that is
01:33the one of the largest biogalーい
01:34You
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