WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Only chickens can get bird flu and every other bird is immune.
OUR VERDICT
False. Bird flu can affect over 100 bird species and cases have been detected in humans and other mammals.
AAP FACTCHECK - Bird flu is not just affecting chickens, despite comments taking wing on social media.
Experts say the illness affects many types of birds and it can also infect mammals, including humans.
The spread of avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has ravaged flocks and the global poultry industry, disrupting supply and fuelling higher food prices.
Many Facebook posts falsely claim that bird flu only affects chickens but not other bird species.
"Why does bird flu only attack chickens? I guess the Sparrows, Robins, Hawks, Eagles….and LITERALLY every other bird in the world, are immune," the post captions said.
An X post sharing the inaccurate claim with more than one million views prompted responses from other users claiming bird flu was a "scam" or "a game".
Another Facebook post falsely claimed that avian influenza was targeting chickens in an attempt to "destroy our food supply".
Nigel French, an infectious disease expert at Massey University in New Zealand, who has spoken extensively on the impact of bird flu, said: "there is no truth to the claim that bird flu only affects chickens".
"Most of the deaths attributable to bird flu have been in wild birds, with many hundreds of thousands of deaths recorded in wild birds over the last few years," Prof French told AAP FactCheck.
"Waterfowl, including ducks, geese and swans, seem to be the most important carriers of infection around the world."
Cases of the severe H5N1 strain had been detected in humans and dairy cows in the US as of February 13, 2025, a Centers for Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) report said.
Since 2003, there have been almost a thousand confirmed human infections, with half of those resulting in death, World Health Organization data showed.
An Australian government fact sheet said bird flu strains could affect more than 140 species, and NZ's Department of Conservation said that avian influenza could affect "domestic and wild birds".
The US CDC website said avian influenza A viruses had been isolated from more than 100 wild bird species and that infections of highly severe strains in poultry could spill back into wild populations.
The Guardian, America's National Public Radio and BBC News have reported on wild birds and mammals killed by infection.
Those reports include significant deaths among barnacle geese in Scotland, pelicans in Greece, hooded cranes in South Korea, and even elephant seals in Argentina.
However, the Australian government's Outbreak website said the country remained free from the H5N1 strain.
No cases of that strain were present in NZ either, the Department of Primary Industries website said.
Prof French said confusion about which species were affected by H5N1 could be due to recent outbreaks of different bird flu strains.
He said sometimes less severe strains carried by wild birds infected poultry in farms and mutated into more severe strains, which caused localised outbreaks that often didn't spill back into the wild.
"This may account for some of the confusion," Dr French said.
"We simply don't know whether some birds are immune to bird flu, as it is difficult to disentangle susceptibility to infection and disease, from exposure to the virus."
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
