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extremely pathogenic avian grippe ( HPAI ) , a particularly deadly physical body of bird flu , has been detected in birds inAntarcticafor the first meter .
Researchers with the British Antarctic Survey ( BAS ) made the breakthrough after investigating news report of unwellness and unexplained deaths among seabirds on Bird Island , an island in the South Atlantic off the northwest tip of South Georgia that houses aBAS enquiry post . To find out what was churn up the animals , the researcher took clinical sampling from the birds there and sent these off for psychoanalysis . swob from chocolate-brown skua ( Stercorarius antarcticus ) reveal the animals had a type of bird flu send for HPAI H5N1 , allot to astatementreleased Monday ( Oct. 23 ) .
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed in brown skua populations on Bird Island.
" Whilst the source of the disease on Bird Island is not sure , it is likely that it was introduce via skuas generate from their migration in Argentina where there are get laid to be a gamey number of cases , " the BAS statement observe . An ongoing H5N1 outbreak that began in 2022 has killed seabird around the reality , and the contagion has also spilled over to mammals , the financial statement added .
H5N1 primarily infects domesticated birds , including chickens and turkeys , and various furious bird , such as duck and geese . In 2022 , it drovedevastating outbreaks on U.S. bird farms . It sometimes infects mammals , includingcats , mink coat , foxes , Navy SEAL and sea lions , according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC ) . On rare occasions , people can get H5N1 , the CDC considers it a low risk to public wellness because it ’s never been found to spread out between people .
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A number of brown skuas have caught H5N1, raising concerns that the infection could continue to spread among the birds and then on to additional animals.
The newfangled cases of H5N1 detect among Bird Island skuas raise concerns for local wildlife .
" There are species on some of the Antarctic island and sub - Antarctic islands that are unequalled to those islands , and only occur in modest numbers , in hundred or thousands,“Thijs Kuiken , a veterinary pathologist at Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam in the Netherlands , told New Scientist . " If the virus reach those populations , they are in scourge of extinction . "
Slow - breeding birds such aspenguinsand albatrosses could also face major loss , he note . If , say , 50 % to 70 % of a breeding colony dies off , " it will take old age , if not decades , for these populations to return to their former levels , " he enjoin .
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In August , Kuiken and other avian flu expertswarned that H5N1 would likely soon spreadto the Antarctic realm from South America , and now their prediction has seemingly come in honest . Because the area has never image an outbreak of highly pathogenic raspberry flu , scientists fear the isolated wildlife there may be hit in particular intemperately , The New York Timesreported in August . ( Other type of bird fluhave sicken birds in Antarcticabefore , but not HPAI . )
So far , at least 30 birds on Bird Island have been down by H5N1 , BAS staff told New Scientist .
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