Discovery of avian influenza in Antarctica for the first time has left scientists worried about the impact the virus might have on wildlife
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In the autumn of 2020, just as variants of Covid-19 were spreading through humans, so a variant of avian influenza (bird flu) was spreading through populations of both wild and domestic birds. The new H5N1 variant of avian influenza, which was first detected in Europe, was highly pathogenic and quickly spread from migrating birds to resident wild birds and domestic poultry flocks.
Carried forward on migrating birds, the virus then spread quickly around most of the world. Seabirds have been particularly hard hit, with millions of seabirds around the world dying from the virus. Domestic poultry has also been heavily impacted, with millions of chickens and other poultry slaughtered in an effort to try and stem the spread of the virus. By mid-2023, only Australasia and Antarctica had been spared from the virus.
But now, for the first time, the H5N1 variant of avian influenza has been detected on Antarctic islands. This discovery has left scientists worried about the impact the virus might have on the wildlife of Antarctica.
The virus was first confirmed in Antarctica in late October on Bird Island, which is a part of the British overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. As the name suggests, Bird Island is renowned for its avian biodiversity, which includes some 50,000 breeding pairs of macaroni penguins, almost 29,000 pairs of albatrosses (black-browed, grey-headed and the mighty wandering) and 500 pairs of southern giant petrels. The island is also visited by migratory brown skuas, and it’s these skuas that are thought to have introduced avian influenza to the island after picking it up in South America.
Due to the density of bird populations on the island – and the lack of exposure that non-migratory birds might have had to the virus – scientists believe that the virus might have a particularly strong impact on the seabirds of Antarctica.
Despite the name avian influenza, the virus can also infect mammals (including, in rare cases, humans). Seals and seal lions have been especially impacted, with some 20,000 sea lions dying from the virus in just Peru and Chile alone in 2023. Unfortunately, Bird Island could also have been named Seal Island because this storm-smashed rock is also home to 65,000 pairs of fur seals.
In order to monitor the spread of the virus both on Bird Island and elsewhere in Antarctica, the Antarctica Wildlife Health Network has set up an HPAI database to monitor and record information on the spread of the outbreak.
In addition to this, rules over human-wildlife contact throughout Antarctica have been tightened. The majority of scientific fieldwork involving the handling of animals has been suspended, and bio-security measures, including enhanced cleaning of clothing and field equipment, have been tightened. Wildlife tourism operators to Antarctica have also put in stricter rules for clients which includes no kneeling, laying down, or putting bags of equipment down on the ground while ashore in Antarctica.
Despite these precautions, it’s feared that avian influenza will spread rapidly through bird and seal populations.
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