The H5N1 virus has reached every continent on Earth

For years, Australia stood as the final geographic holdout against the H5N1 avian influenza virus. While the pathogen swept through bird and mammal populations across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, the island continent’s isolation provided a natural barrier. That isolation ended when the virus was identified in a skua, a large migratory seabird, found on a beach in a national park in Western Australia.