Australia has reported its first case of a highly pathogenic bird flu virus in 15 years at an egg farm in New South Wales.
The World Organisation for Animal Health says 5000 poultry have died and another 50,000 are at risk at a farm at Maitland, 160km north of Sydney.
The virus was detected last week. It is different from the H5N1 strain which was first detected in 1997 in Hong Kong.
The farm is under quarantine.
Australia had an outbreak of bird flu in February which led to a ban on exports of poultry products to Japan.
