The virus was almost definitely introduced by birds getting back from their migration to South America.

Paris:

Bird flu has been detected within the Antarctica area for the primary time, based on British specialists, elevating issues the lethal virus might pose a risk to penguins and different native species.

Scientists had been fearing that the worst outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in historical past would attain Antarctica, a key breeding floor for a lot of birds.

The British Antarctic Survey stated its employees took samples from brown skua seabirds after they died on Bird Island in South Georgia, a British abroad territory east of South America’s tip and north of Antarctica’s important landmass.

The checks have been despatched to Britain and got here again constructive, the UK’s polar analysis institute stated in an announcement on Monday.

The virus was almost definitely introduced by birds getting back from their migration to South America, the place there was an enormous variety of hen flu instances, it added.

Visitors to South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are beneath enhanced biosecurity measures, and scientific area work involving birds there was stopped, the assertion stated.

There have been common hen flu outbreaks because the virus first emerged in 1996.

Since mid-2021, a lot bigger outbreaks began to unfold southward to beforehand untouched areas together with South America, resulting in mass deaths amongst wild birds and tens of thousands and thousands of poultry being culled.

– ‘Devastating information’ –

Michelle Wille, a hen flu knowledgeable on the University of Melbourne, stated the unfold of hen flu to the Antarctica area was “devastating news”.

“The situation could change rapidly,” she wrote on X, previously Twitter.

Ian Brown, virology head on the UK’s Animal and Plant Health Agency, warned final week that there was a threat migrating birds might unfold the virus from South America to the Antarctica islands after which onto the principle landmass.

This may very well be a “real concern” for populations of birds resembling penguins which are distinctive to Antarctica, he instructed journalists.

Birds resembling penguins which have by no means earlier than been uncovered to the virus would haven’t any prior immunity, probably making them extra susceptible.

In higher information, the Animal Plant Health Agency additionally stated final week that preliminary analysis had confirmed that the populations of two seabirds — northern gannets and shag — had proven immunity to hen flu.

Humans not often catch hen flu, however once they do it’s often by way of direct contact with contaminated birds.

Earlier this month, a two-year-old lady died from hen flu in Cambodia, the third dying recorded within the nation this yr.

The virus has additionally been detected in a rising variety of mammals, elevating fears it might mutate right into a model that’s extra transmissible between people.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)