{"id":11495,"date":"2026-02-18T19:11:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T01:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11495"},"modified":"2026-02-18T19:11:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T01:11:26","slug":"bird-flu-ravaging-antarctic-wildlife-scientist-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/02\/18\/bird-flu-ravaging-antarctic-wildlife-scientist-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu ravaging Antarctic wildlife, scientist warns"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swiowanewssource.com\/news\/nation\/article_a9a888d6-f3e5-5e97-87db-afac0c52b6ca.html\">AFP<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scientists are sounding the alarm over the spread of bird flu across Antarctica, with a leading Chilean researcher telling AFP Tuesday of an observed strain &#8220;capable of killing 100 percent&#8221; of infected fauna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers have been warning in recent years of bird flu&#8217;s spread on the icy continent, which hosts temporary teams of scientists but no permanent residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But a particularly dangerous strain of the disease was detected in April 2024 by Chilean researcher Victor Neira and his team in five skuas, a type of polar seabird. Since then, the virus has spread to other species, with cases detected along 900 kilometers (560 miles) of coastline studied by scientists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a recent expedition to Antarctica, new cases were discovered in Antarctic cormorants, kelp gulls, Adelie and gentoo penguins, and Antarctic fur seals, Neira told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The virus has completely spread throughout the Antarctic region where we have the capacity to go and study,&#8221; said Neira, a scientist at the University of Chile and the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This disease is capable of killing 100 percent of the birds in short periods of time,&#8221; he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swiowanewssource.com\/news\/nation\/article_a9a888d6-f3e5-5e97-87db-afac0c52b6ca.html\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFP Scientists are sounding the alarm over the spread of bird flu across Antarctica, with a leading Chilean researcher telling AFP Tuesday of an observed strain &#8220;capable of killing 100 percent&#8221; of infected fauna. Researchers have been warning in recent years of bird flu&#8217;s spread on the icy continent, which hosts temporary teams of scientists [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian-influenza"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-18-at-17.46.49-1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11497,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11495\/revisions\/11497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}