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Bird flu has reached continental Antarctica for the first time, officials confirmed.
The H5N1 virus was found on Friday in two dead scavenging birds called skuas near the Primavera Base, the Argentine scientific research station on the Antarctic Peninsula.
Additional suspected cases have been reported in brown skua, Antarctic skua and kelp gull in Hope Bay, also on the Antarctic Peninsula. according to data of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research.
“This discovery demonstrates for the first time that the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus has reached Antarctica, despite the distance and natural barriers that separate it from other continents,” said a Spaniard. government report on Sunday.
These are the first confirmed cases on the continent itself, showing that the virus is spreading in the region, probably through migratory birds. This H5N1 outbreak is believed to have killed millions of wild birds around the world since 2021 and has spread to every continent except Oceania.
Bird flu arrived in the Antarctic region in October last year when it was reported on sub-Antarctic islands. The virus was first detected in the British overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from the continent of Antarctica. It was also found in the Falkland Islands, which are located 600 miles northwest of South Georgia.
It was initially reported in birds such as gulls, skuas and terns, but has since been found in albatrosses, penguins and southern fulmars. It has also spread to Antarctic mammals, with mass deaths of elephant seals and fur seals. The virus is also devastating wildlife populations in the Arctic. In December it was confirmed that the first polar bear had died from H5N1.
“There are many reports of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) affecting several species in Antarctic regions this season,” said Matthew Dryden of the UK Health Security Agency. “It may not have been reported in continental Antarctica until now due to difficulties in accessing and sampling wildlife. [there].”
The dead birds from continental Antarctica were found by Argentine scientists and sent to scientists at the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center in Madrid, who were working at the Spanish Antarctic base on Deception Island.
“The problem is how long it will take before it is transmitted to other species like penguins. We need to monitor that,” said Antonio Alcamí, a researcher at Spain’s National Scientific Research Council who works at the Severo Ochoa CSIC Molecular Biology Center, which is based at the Spanish Antarctic base and analyzed the bodies. “I’m afraid it will probably be transmitted to the penguins. “Skuas live pretty close, so there is a lot of opportunity for transmission, but we’ll see.”
Previous outbreaks in South Africa, Chile and Argentina have shown that penguins are susceptible to the virus. Since H5N1 arrived in South America, more than 500,000 Seabirds have died from the disease, with penguins, pelicans and boobies among the worst affected.
The researchers wrote in a preprint. research work in November last year: “If the virus begins to cause mass mortality in penguin colonies, it could signal one of the biggest ecological disasters of modern times.”
Diana Bell, emeritus professor of conservation biology at the University of East Anglia, said the news is “sadly not surprising, given the previously reported presence on Antarctic islands in birds and elephant seals. “It seems unlikely that the penguins there will not become infected.”
Dryden added: “Biosecurity is important so that humans are not exposed to the virus. HPAI can rarely infect humans, but close and prolonged contact is required.”
While several wildlife sites had been closed to tourists to limit the spread of the virus, Dryden said, little more could be done to stop its spread. “Nothing more can be done to limit transmission in wildlife and the outbreak will have to resolve naturally.”
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