Thousands of little penguins will be vaccinated against bird flu down under

Australia recorded its first H5N1 bird flu case on June 20, ending a run as one of the last continents free of the virus, and authorities have responded by vaccinating little penguin colonies at St Kilda and Phillip Island, with roughly 1,000 birds inoculated so far. The flightless, burrow-dwelling penguins are relatively easy to catch twice for the required two doses, which is more than can be said for getting them to read a consent form.

Mass die-offs of wild birds, including more than 1,000 greater crested terns in South Australia, prompted the state premier to declare a 'significant escalation,' while Tasmania investigates 28 penguin deaths on King Island and a seal has tested positive for H5N1, the first confirmed mammal case in the country. No domestic poultry infections have been confirmed yet.

The vaccination announcement was mostly well received by Victorians, but not before anti-vaccine commentary flooded a local MP's social media, arguing that vaccinating wildlife is merely 'the money' finding new hosts once humans stopped cooperating. Australian slang has already coined a term, 'cooker,' for exactly this genre of commentator, which suggests the country was prepared for this moment linguistically if not virologically.

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