MELBOURNE, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in the Australian state of Victoria have started vaccinating 5,000 little penguins at popular tourist sites against the H5N1 bird flu.
Workers at the Phillip Island Nature Parks reserve south of Melbourne on Sunday night administered the first of two H5N1 vaccine doses to their 1,000th little penguin under a program launched earlier in August to protect the state's populations of the species.
The state government said it plans to vaccinate 5,000 little penguins at Phillip Island and in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda amid a nationwide surge in cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain.
Phillip Island is home to the world's largest colony of little penguins, which are native to Australia and New Zealand, with an estimated 40,000 birds.
The island's Penguin Parade, where visitors can watch little penguins walk from the ocean to their burrows at dusk, is one of Victoria's most popular tourist attractions, drawing over 700,000 visitors in 2025, with China accounting for 17 percent of total visitation.
Victorian Environment Minister Jaclyn Symes told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the vaccinated penguins will be caught again in three to four weeks for their second dose.
"We know that bird flu is here, we know we can't stop it, but we want to put the penguin colony in the best possible place to ensure that they are protected as much as possible," she said.
A 2025 report from the state's environment department estimated that an H5N1 outbreak among Phillip Island's little penguins could have a mortality rate of up to 40 percent.
Australia's first H5N1 case in a little penguin was confirmed on Phillip Island on Aug. 15. ■
