- H5N1, an extremely pathogenic bird influenza infection brought usually by wild birds, has actually shown up in Latin America, triggering unmatched death in sea bird nests along the west coast.
- The infection has actually killed 10s of countless sea birds in Peru alone, consisting of some types that are thought about threatened in the nation, and researchers fret other susceptible types like the Andean condor may likewise end up being contaminated.
- Hundreds of sea lions and a dolphin have actually likewise been contaminated, which raises issues relating to transmission to human beings and is particularly uneasy if it is verified that mammals can contaminate each other.
- The break outs likewise threaten Peru’s guano market, which supplies budget friendly fertilizer to lots of small farmers in the area, and might expose individuals gathering guano to H5N1.
Since late 2021, an extremely pathogenic bird influenza infection of the type H5N1 has actually ruined wild and captive birds throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, killing millions. In November, it likewise got here in Latin America, triggering unmatched death in sea bird nests along the area’s west coast. “The first cases in Peru were confirmed on Nov. 13, 2022,” says Víctor Gamarra-Toledo, an ornithologist at the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa in Peru. “By now, outbreaks have been reported in Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile and Central American countries like Panama and Costa Rica.” The infection continues to spread out southward: earlier in February, it was found in Ancud on the Isla Grande de Chiloé in Chile, about 1,125 kilometers (700 miles) south of Santiago.
“I’ve been working with Peruvian sea birds for 30 years,” says Carlos Zavalaga, an ornithologist at the Universidad Científica del Sur in Lima, “and I’ve never seen such massive mortality due to disease outbreaks.”
The event of bird influenza in Peru is not uncommon in itself, says Giancarlo Inga Díaz, wildlife vet at the Peruvian National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State (SERNANP), as variations of the infection have actually been discovered in the nation prior to. “But in 2022, we’ve observed an unusual impact on wild populations of coastal sea birds. Our wildlife monitoring system recorded nearly 50,000 dead birds in eight protected areas [in Peru alone]. In the last week of January, we’ve observed a high mortality of resident birds in the Paracas National Reserve,” Inga Díaz informs Mongabay about the reserve situated 265 km (165 mi) south of Lima.
Some of the heaviest effect appears to be on the islands simply off Peru’s coast. “Authorities have banned researchers from entering the islands close to the coast where the main areas of mortality are,” says Zavalaga. “But about a month ago, we sent a drone with cameras from the coast to two of them, Pachacamac and Asia, and counted thousands of dead birds.” The most afflicted types, he says, are Peruvian pelicans (Pelecanus thagus), Peruvian boobies (Sula variegata) and Guanay cormorants (Leucocarbo bougainvilliorum). The pelicans and boobies have actually been designated as threatened by Peruvian authorities, while Guanay cormorants are thought about to be near threatened by the IUCN. “We know that the numbers of the Peruvian pelicans in Peru never exceeded 100,000 individuals in the last 20 years,” says Zavalaga. “So the death of at least 20,000 of them is quite significant.”
The damage appears to surpass birds. Hundreds of dead sea lions and a couple of dead fur seals have actually been found in a number of safeguarded locations, consisting of in Paracas National Reserve. Live sea lions there revealed uncoordinated habits, a prospective sign of infection of the nerve system, and had extreme mucous in their eyes, nose and mouth — possible signs of bird influenza, says Inga Díaz of SERNANP.
Still pending evaluation, a current analysis exposes that the sea lions had actually been contaminated by H5N1 — however whether this was likewise what killed them has yet to be verified. A dead dolphin discovered in the north in the area of Piura was likewise revealed to be contaminated with the infection. The lethal infections increase issues that the infection might have the ability to spread out from one mammal to another — though that is likewise unofficial at the minute — and might be able to infect people as well.
Farmers in difficulty
The break out impacting the pelicans, cormorants and boobies is likewise impacting a specific sector of the regional economy: guano harvesting. The birds’ dried, compressed excrement is a valued fertilizer in farming. “These three species produce around 86,000 tons of guano per year, which is roughly worth $50 million,” says biologist Daniel Plazas-Jiménez, from the Unitrópico University in Colombia.
Plazas-Jiménez says the guano’s significance far surpasses its financial worth. “In Peru, most guano is sold to organic or traditional farmers, many from Indigenous communities, at a price that is low in comparison to that of inorganic fertilizers. In 2021, the Peruvian authorities planned to extract around 25,000 tons to provide for more than 40,000 families. Many people need guano to keep their organic certifications and often have few economic resources to buy other fertilizers. So this also affects their food security.”
“The guano industry in Peru is not industrial,” Zavalaga includes, “it’s very local. For example, last year only two islands in Peru were under guano harvesting. This year, I think they were planning [to harvest on] three or four [other islands].” He doubts whether the infection can make it through in the extreme environment provided by the guano itself. “I’d be more afraid that live birds would pass the virus to humans, either on the islands or on the mainland beaches, where there are also dead animals. It’s summer now, so many people go there.”
In action to the break out, the Peruvian Ministry of Health has actually stated a 90-day state of emergency situation to avoid the infection from contaminating individuals. According to Inga Díaz, procedures consist of prohibiting the collection of guano, encouraging versus dealing with wild animals and utilizing high-risk beaches, and training park rangers to keep an eye on animal health.
Condors at danger
Local federal governments have actually sent groups using personal protective equipment to gather the carcasses discovered on beaches and bury them, says Zavalaga. He concerns, nevertheless, that “on the islands, where the main colonies are found, there is a lack of adequate disposal of the carcasses.” As long as couple of individuals are permitted to go there, the danger of human infection is low. But in the meantime, dead and ill birds do present an infection danger to other birds and mammals that share their environment, and scavengers that eat them.
That consists of an extremely renowned and susceptible one, the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus), says Gamarra-Toledo, who is studying how the condor’s feeding habits exposes it to contamination. “We are very concerned about the possible fatal consequences of this outbreak on this species.”
“We’ve found there is a population of Andean condors feeding mainly on sea lions, but sometimes also on dead pelicans,” says Sergio Lambertucci, an ornithologist at the Universidad Nacional del Comahue in Argentina. “Andean condors may be feeding on the coastline in the morning and roosting in the high mountains in the evening, 4,000 meters [13,120 feet] above sea level.” He likewise stresses over turkey vultures, which wander basically throughout the continent and may spread out the illness even if it doesn’t eliminate them. “We are trapping them in Argentina now to find out.”
Bird migration is most likely at the root of the break out, says Zavalaga, as the infection appears to have actually shown up with birds moving from North America in spring, though the specific paths or perpetrators have actually not been determined. “Since the first report in mid-November, the deaths have not stopped,” he includes. “Animals are still dying on the islands. What kind of conservation measures are we going to take? I don’t see anything like a strategy for that yet.”
Gamarra-Toledo concurs that keeping an eye on break outs and burying dead birds might not suffice to save them. “We should also reduce human impacts that negatively affect them — environmental pollution, habitat loss and the overexploitation of resources — so we can give these birds a better chance of survival.”
Citations:
Gamarra-Toledo, V., Plaza, P. I., Gutiérrez, R., Luyo, P., Hernani, L., Angulo, F., & Lambertucci, S. A. (2023). Avian influenza threatens Neotropical birds. Science, 379(6629), 246–246.
Wille, M., & Barr, I. G. (2022). Resurgence of bird influenza infection. Science, 376(6592), 459–460.
Gamarra-Toledo, V., Plaza, P. I., Inga, G., Gutiérrez, R., García-Tello, O., Valdivia-Ramírez, L.,
Huamán-Mendoza, D., Nieto-Navarrete, J. C., Ventura, S., & Lambertucci, S. A. (2023). First mass death of marine mammals triggered by extremely pathogenic influenza infection (H5n1) in south america [Preprint]. Pathology.
Gamarra-Toledo, V., Plaza, P. I., Peña, Y. A., Bermejo, P. A., López, J., Cano, G. L., Barreto, S., Cáceres-Medina, S., & Lambertucci, S. A. (2023). High occurrence of plastic particles in Andean condors from remote locations: Evidence for marine-terrestrial trophic transfer. Environmental Pollution, 317, 120742.
Banner image: Some of Peru’s beaches are now off limitations due to the fact that of a break out of bird influenza amongst sea birds. Image thanks to SERNANP.
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send out a message to the author of this post. If you wish to publish a public remark, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
