SA braces for bird flu as zoo closes aviaries, experts warn against exotic parrot imports

South Australia is moving into defensive posture against a virus that has already killed millions of birds and mammals across the globe. At Adelaide Zoo, the walk-through aviaries sit empty. The Little Penguin exhibit is dark. The Free Flight Show has been suspended. These are not permanent closures—not yet—but they signal a state taking seriously the arrival of H5 bird flu on its coastline.

Five confirmed cases have been detected in South Australian wild birds. Eight more have turned up in Western Australia. One in New South Wales. Fourteen across the continent so far, all in wild populations, none yet in commercial poultry operations or farms. But the discovery of a dead greater crested tern at Robe Marina has epidemiologists watching closely. That single bird represents a potential gateway to something far worse.

Adrian Esterman, an epidemiologist at Adelaide University, does not mince words about what could happen if the virus establishes itself in the state's wildlife. A mass die-off of wild birds is the baseline scenario. If it reaches a poultry farm, every bird on that property would likely be culled, and a quarantine zone would have to be erected around it to prevent spread to neighboring operations. The real catastrophe, though, would be if the virus jumped to endangered mammals and marsupials—species that exist nowhere else on Earth and in numbers so small that a single outbreak could erase them. Esterman notes that Australia's thousands of kilometers of coastline make complete surveillance nearly impossible. Dead birds could be hidden under seaweed, scattered across remote islands, never found. Yet he also points out that the detection system is working. The fact that these five birds were found at all suggests the surveillance infrastructure is doing what it was built to do.

The human risk remains low, Esterman emphasizes. The virus latches onto receptors deep in a bird's throat—receptors humans do not have. It is not, at this moment, a respiratory disease in people. But the state is not waiting for circumstances to change. The government has launched a volunteer Bird Observers Network, training birders to spot sick or dead birds in the wild and report them to authorities. An aerial survey covering nearly 5,000 kilometers of coastline, islands, and reefs found no evidence of widespread wildlife impacts. The message from officials is measured: we are prepared, we are watching, we are safe.

But there is another threat moving through federal policy channels, one that conservation groups say could open a door the state has been trying to keep closed. The Federal Government is considering lifting a 30-year ban on live imports of exotic parrots. The Invasive Species Council is calling for the ban to remain in place—not just for some species, but for all 33 parrot species currently on the live import list. Claire Bookless, a senior policy analyst at the council, is particularly concerned about the orange-bellied parrot, a bird that breeds in Tasmania and migrates to South Australia's coast each winter. Fewer than 100 orange-bellied parrots remain in the wild. Bookless witnessed 26 of them during a recent visit to Tasmania—nearly a quarter of the entire wild population in a single sighting. These are birds that exist on the edge of extinction. Lifting import restrictions now, with H5 bird flu already circulating, would create new pathways for exotic diseases to enter the country and potentially devastate species that cannot afford to lose a single individual.

The Federal Government has not yet made a final decision. A spokesperson said the government will "take into consideration stakeholder comment, including on threatened parrot species" and will "recommend appropriate biosecurity measures to mitigate biosecurity risks." The National Environment Protection Agency is reviewing which parrots should be removed from the import list entirely. But the timeline remains unclear, and conservation groups are pushing hard to ensure that biosecurity concerns are not overridden by commercial interests.

At Adelaide Zoo, Dr. Phil Ainsley said the temporary closures of aviaries and penguin exhibits will be reassessed over the coming weeks. Both Adelaide Zoo and Monarto Safari Park remain open to the public, he emphasized, and all animals are safe. The zoo has had the advantage of time—Australia was the last continent to see H5 bird flu arrive—and has used that window to learn from overseas colleagues and prepare biosecurity protocols. The state government is also asking the public to report any sick or dead birds immediately. Weakness, inability to stand or fly, neurological signs, swelling of the head, respiratory distress—these are the signs to watch for. Do not touch the birds. Do not approach them. Report them. The surveillance system depends on it.