Bird flu reaches Antarctica

Many people have a favourite animal, maybe a penguin, maybe a seal… could you imagine how horrible it would be for any of these species to go extinct? This is what they fear could happen in Antarctica. The animals in Antarctica are at risk.

Cases of H5N1 (bird flu) has been found in Antarctica. Scientists fear the affects on penguin and seal populations that have never been exposed to the disease. Scientists suspect that it could mean “catastrophic breeding failure” of the fragile wildlife populations.

The virus has been found on “bird island”, and other South Georgian islands. The flu was brought there by migratory birds. These birds are from South America where the flu has already killed around 500,000 sea birds and 20,000 sea lions solely speaking of Chile and Peru.

This current outbreak is of a highly infectious variant of H5N1 that had started in 2021 (estimated to have killed millions of birds). Scientists believe that it will have strong adverse effects on the Antarctic wildlife since they have not been exposed to the virus before.

Ashley Bennison, the BAS science manager for Bird Island, said: “This is a particularly sad event to confirm. We will continue to monitor the species on the island as best as we can and keep the science going, but we are unsure of the full impact at the moment.”

After all this sad news... there is always a slightly reassuring side. In the UK, where an outbreak was reported, sea birds are starting to show immunity to H5N1.

Citations

Weston, Phoebe. “‘Catastrophic’: Bird Flu Reaches Antarctic for the First Time.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Oct. 2023, www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/24/catastrophic-penguins-and-seals-at-risk-as-bird-flu-reaches-antarctic-aoe.