Sign as much as the Independent Climate e-mail for the latest recommendation on saving the planet
Get our free Climate e-mail
Bird flu has been present in elephant and fur seals close to Antarctica in what are the area’s first instances of contaminated mammals.
The UK’s Animal Plant Health Agency (Apha) stated it has been testing for the H5N1 virus on the island of South Georgia since a number of brown skuas had been discovered useless there in October.
The virus is probably to have been launched by birds migrating from South America and it has since handed on to seals and different hen species on the island.
Scientists stated the chance to human well being stays very low however that H5N1 endangers the fragile and distinctive ecosystems of the Antarctic.
Although the Antarctic is extraordinarily distant, it was inevitable that ultimately the extremely pathogenic H5N1 pressure of influenza would attain the area
Dr Ed Hutchinson, University of Glasgow
Professor Ian Brown, Apha’s director of scientific providers, stated: “Given Antarctica is such a unique and special biodiversity hotspot, it is sad and concerning to see the disease spread to mammals in the region.
“If avian influenza continues to spread throughout the sub-Antarctic region this could significantly threaten the fragile ecosystem, and potentially put a number of very large populations of seabirds and sea mammals at risk.”
Apha scientists discovered optimistic hen flu samples from elephant and fur seals, brown skuas, kelp gulls and Antarctic terns.
They additionally examined albatross and large petrels from Bird Island however these examined unfavorable, whereas there have to this point been no studies of above-average charges of dying in penguins.
Bird flu has unfold to mammals earlier than. It has been present in seals round Europe and the Americas in addition to in mink in northern Spain and foxes and otters in England.
Bird flu has been present in elephant and fur seals close to Antarctica in what are the area’s first instances of contaminated mammals
(PA)
Positive samples have been discovered as far north because the Arctic, in Alaskan polar bears, with the pressure now reaching to the opposite finish of the Earth.
Dr Ed Hutchinson, a virologist on the University of Glasgow who was not concerned within the Apha testing, stated: “Influenza viruses are particularly common in waterfowl and shorebirds, which can carry the viruses long distances as they migrate.
“Although the Antarctic is extremely remote, it was inevitable that eventually the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of influenza would reach the region, and infected birds were first reported by the British Antarctic Survey a few months ago.
“The fact that this virus has now started infecting mammals in the region is, sadly, also not surprising – viruses are usually extremely picky about which animal they infect, but influenza viruses are unusually good at infecting new host species.
“Importantly, there is a difference between isolated infections of a new species and a virus spreading efficiently within that species.
“It requires a lot of changes for a bird virus to become a mammalian virus, and at the current time there is no sign that this H5N1 virus has changed from being a dangerous virus of birds to a virus that can spread easily within any mammal species.”
