Victoria launches vaccination program for little penguins

Wildlife rangers in the Australian state of Victoria have launched a large-scale vaccination program to protect more than 5,000 little penguins from the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus. The initiative targets colonies on Phillip Island and in the St. Kilda suburb, addressing a population estimated at approximately 40,000 animals.

This represents the most extensive vaccination program for wild birds to date. The effort follows a confirmed death of a little penguin from bird flu on Phillip Island. Government modeling has warned that in a worst-case scenario, between 8,000 and 16,000 penguins on Phillip Island could perish if the virus spreads unchecked through the dense colonies.