Bird flu has reached Antarctica and could have a devastating effect

The deadly type of hen flu that has been killing millions of wild birds around the globe has unfold south to the Antarctic area, the place it’s feared it would have a devastating affect on seals and whales in addition to birds comparable to penguins and albatrosses. It might even result in extinctions.

“There are species on a few of the Antarctic islands and sub-Antarctic islands which can be distinctive to these islands, and solely happen in small numbers, in a whole lot or 1000’s,” says Thijs Kuiken at Erasmus College Rotterdam within the Netherlands. “If the virus reaches these populations, they’re in risk of extinction.”

If the virus spreads round Antarctica, there’s additionally a threat of migratory birds carrying it to New Zealand and Australia for the primary time, says Kuiken.

The highly pathogenic form of H5N1 bird flu that has been killing many wild birds in Europe, Asia and Africa since 2020 was carried throughout the Atlantic to North America in 2021. In October 2022, it was detected in South America.

There it’s recognized to have killed 1000’s of marine mammals in addition to a whole lot of 1000’s of birds of many various species, and the true numbers are prone to be a lot greater. By December 2022, it had unfold to the southern tip of South America.

In current days, researchers at a British Antarctic Survey station on Fowl Island, simply off the larger island of South Georgia, discovered some sick brown skuas and large petrels, and sent samples back to the UK for testing.

“The take a look at got here again yesterday, they usually have been certainly constructive,” says Norman Ratcliffe, a seabird ecologist on the British Antarctic Survey.

Up to now, solely 30 useless birds have been discovered, however the worry is that H5N1 might unfold quickly within the giant and dense hen colonies on Fowl Island and South Georgia.

Skuas and large petrels will kill or scavenge different birds, making them notably prone to get contaminated. Additionally they winter off the coast of South America and migrate to locations like South Georgia for the summer season, says Ratcliffe. So it was thought that these birds are the species prone to unfold the illness within the Antarctic area.

Animals within the Antarctic have by no means been uncovered to extremely pathogenic hen flu earlier than, however “there’s a actual likelihood that the virus will attain, or has already reached, the mainland of Antarctica”, says Kuiken, one of many authors of an August report warning of the risk of highly pathogenic bird flu reaching Antarctica.

There are just a few stations on the mainland, and the vacationer season hasn’t but begun, so Antarctic birds might already be dying with out being observed, says Ratcliffe. “There’s little or no statement occurring there.”

Birds comparable to penguins and albatrosses are sluggish breeders, says Kuiken. “So if there’s mortality in a breeding colony of, let’s say, 50 or 70 per cent, as we’ve seen in some seabird colonies in Europe, then it would take years, if not a long time, for these populations to return to their earlier ranges.”

Uncommon species in danger from the virus embody a number of species of parakeet discovered solely on the Auckland and Antipodes islands south of New Zealand, the flightless Falkland steamer duck, the Kerguelen tern and the New Zealand sea lion, in line with the August report.

Antarctic researchers are taking precautions comparable to disinfecting footwear and gear, and websites the place the illness is current might be closed to tourism, however apart from that there isn’t a lot that may be performed to cease the unfold of the virus. “It’s most certainly that transmission might be hen to hen,” says Ratcliffe.

The viruses from Fowl Island are actually being sequenced, says Ian Brown on the UK’s Animal and Plant Well being Company, which did the preliminary testing. “We all know it’s H5N1 however additional characterisation is underneath means, together with genomics, which can verify the connection to different viruses and due to this fact probably origins,” he says.