00:00New Zealand has confirmed its first case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu after an infected bird was
00:08found on a beach in Wellington, becoming the latest country to detect the virus after years
00:13of keeping it at bay. Health officials have now begun vaccinating 300 breeding birds from
00:19five of the country's most endangered species. Yes, it's inevitable that we will get more birds
00:26show up coming from Antarctica. The disease is in the Southern Ocean now amongst that bird life,
00:32so it was always inevitable that it was going to get here eventually. Like I said, we're the last
00:37country in the world to effectively get this. It's spread all across the globe. Everyone else has
00:43learned how to live with it. The case, found in a brown squaw seabird, follows the detection of H5N1
00:50in Australia last month. Hoggart says officials expect New Zealand could see a similar pattern
00:56after Australia recorded 14 confirmed cases. The highly pathogenic virus has spread around the
01:02world since 2021, killing millions of wild birds and hitting poultry, dairy herds and some farm workers.
01:10Officials warn many of New Zealand's native bird species are especially vulnerable because they
01:15evolved in isolation and have few natural defenses against disease and other threats.
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