Polar bears are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN crimson checklist of endangered species.
A polar bear was discovered useless in Alaska, and it is the primary time we all know of a polar bear dying from hen flu. The bear was found in Utqiagvik, an space that is been hit laborious by the present world outbreak. The loss of life was confirmed in December by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
“This is the primary polar bear case reported wherever,” Dr Bob Gerlach, Alaska’s state veterinarian, advised the Alaska Beacon.
Yet, in response to Dr Gerlach, the bear may not have change into sick immediately from consuming an contaminated hen.
“If a hen dies of this, particularly if it is saved in a chilly setting, the virus might be maintained for some time within the setting,” he mentioned.
In the final two years, as extra wild birds acquired sick, completely different animals like dolphins, porpoises, seals, foxes, and otters additionally acquired the illness. The virus, recognized as H5N1, poses a risk to people, significantly these involved with poultry.
The polar bear loss of life is an indication of the unusually persistent and deadly maintain that this pressure of extremely pathogenic avian influenza has on wild animal populations two years after it arrived in North America, officers mentioned.
“What we’re coping with now could be a situation that we have not handled prior to now. And so there is no handbook,” mentioned Andy Ramey, a US Geological Survey wildlife geneticist and avian influenza skilled.
Polar bears are categorized as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) crimson checklist of endangered species, primarily because of the diminishing sea ice.
