Australia launches world's first penguin vaccination campaign against H5N1 bird flu

Potential death of 8,000-16,000 endangered little penguins if bird flu outbreak occurs uncontrolled on Phillip Island.

On a small island off the coast of Victoria, Australia, humanity has crossed a quiet but significant threshold: for the first time in history, wild penguins are being vaccinated against a virus — H5N1 bird flu — that models suggest could kill tens of thousands of them if left unchecked. The campaign, targeting up to 5,800 little penguins across two colonies, arrives as the virus has already reached Australian wildlife and crossed into mammals, collapsing the distance between theoretical threat and present danger. It is, at its core, a story about the expanding circle of human responsibility to

Australia launches world's first penguin vaccination campaign against H5N1 bird flu

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