It is clear from epidemiological and laboratory data that ocular exposure to influenza virus can manifest in both ocular and respiratory disease. However, the properties that contribute towards the ocular tropism of select influenza virus subtypes, and the mechanisms of virus spread from ocular to respiratory tract tissue following ocular exposure to influenza virus, are not well understood. Here, we present a ferret model where influenza virus in a liquid suspension is placed on the surface of the eye and massaged across the surface of the eye within the conjunctival sac (ocular inoculation) to study the ability of human and avian influenza viruses to cause disease and transmit to naïve animals. We found that both human and avian influenza viruses can mount a productive virus infection following ocular inoculation, attributable to replication-independent drainage of virus inoculum from the site of inoculation to respiratory tract tissue. The viral infection following ocular inoculation was capable of causing severe and fatal disease (in the case of H5N1 virus), but was less transmissible by respiratory droplets (in the case of seasonal influenza viruses) compared with infection following inoculation by the traditional intranasal route.