Little penguins in Australia are given H5N1 vaccines

Australian wildlife workers have started vaccinating wild little penguins against H5N1 avian influenza after the virus was detected in a dead bird from the Phillip Island colony in Victoria.

The programme covers Phillip Island, where the wild colony can number up to 40,000 seabirds at the height of the breeding season, and a little penguin population at St Kilda in Melbourne.

James Todd, Victoria's chief biodiversity officer, said teams aim to inoculate about 5,000 little penguins closest to visitor areas. He said the work is likely to last weeks or months because the vaccine ideally needs two doses.

Todd said the vaccination effort was unprecedented at this scale in a wild population. He said experts were considering whether the gap between doses could be shortened to one or two weeks because of the urgency, but a final decision had not been made.

Teams can take penguins from their burrows and may try to corral some as they come ashore, using microchips to track birds that have received a shot.