A really contagious pressure of extremely pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is wreaking havoc on elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) on the coast of Patagonia, Argentina. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), almost 96 p.c of elephant seal pups dwelling at three breeding websites the place the H5N1 pressure of HPAI was detected have died. The WCS group estimates 17,000 elephant seal pups died in these areas in 2023.
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“It’s the first report of massive elephant seal mortality in the area from any cause in the last half century. The sight of elephant seals found dead or dying along the breeding beaches can only be described as apocalyptic,” WCS Executive Director of Health Chris Walzer said in a statement. “This 2023 die-off contrasts starkly with the 18,000 pups born and successfully weaned in 2022.”
The WCS believes that the elephant seals had little to no interplay with contaminated chook populations, which is additional proof of mammal to mammal transmission. According to veterinarian Marcela Uhart on the University of California, Davis, since new child elephant seal pups suckle their moms to feed, there’s little likelihood that the pups ate contaminated birds. “This is all highly suggestive of some sort of transmission between mammals,” Uhart told New Scientist.
H5N1 was first detected in 1996 in China. The virus had been largely confined to domesticated birds for a number of years, however has been spreading rapidly in wild populations since 2021. H5N1 contaminated over 150 domestic and wild bird species around the globe. Over 500,000 birds in South America alone have died from the illness. H5N1 has additionally killed greater than 2,200 Dalmatian pelicans in Greece and about 20,000 Sandwich terns in the Netherlands.
Bird flu spreads by means of air droplets and chook feces. According to WCS, it’s exacerbated by alterations to chook migration schedules attributable to human-caused local weather change and repeated re-circulation in home poultry. There have additionally been outbreaks of the virus at mink farms in France and Spain and the USDA banned poultry imports from France in October 2023. Scientists confirmed that the virus jumped to wild mammals in May 2022 and has since been detected in dozens of mammals together with pumas, foxes, skunks, and brown bears. Roughly 700 endangered Caspian seals died from the virus in 2023. H5N1 additionally killed a polar bear for the primary time in fall 2023, according to health officials in Alaska.
[Related: USDA bans French poultry imports over avian influenza vaccine.]
In response to the unfold, the World Health Organization has urged public health officials to prepare for a possible spillover to people. Initially, scientists thought that mammals might solely catch the virus by means of contact with contaminated birds. While instances of people getting infected and seriously ill from bird flu are rare, the extra it spreads amongst mammals, the simpler will probably be for the virus to evolve to transmit extra simply between them. For COVID-19, the variety of wholesome people contaminated by a single sick individual–or R naught worth–initially ranged from 1.7 to 7 new infections. Among birds with H5N1, round 100 birds may be contaminated by a single sick chook.
“It is imperative that we take a collaborative One Health approach to identifying emerging strains of bird flu across the globe to support the development of specific and universal vaccines that can quickly treat infection in people to prevent another pandemic,” stated Walzer. “The cost of inaction is already causing major devastation to wildlife. As we work to help affected populations recover, we must remain vigilant against the spread of this deadly pathogen to people before it’s too late.”
