{"id":7283,"date":"2024-08-07T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=7283"},"modified":"2024-08-07T08:00:30","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T13:00:30","slug":"animal-apocalypse-deadly-bird-flu-infects-hundreds-of-species-pole-to-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2024\/08\/07\/animal-apocalypse-deadly-bird-flu-infects-hundreds-of-species-pole-to-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal apocalypse: Deadly bird flu infects hundreds of species pole-to-pole"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2024\/08\/animal-apocalypse-deadly-bird-flu-infects-hundreds-of-species-pole-to-pole\/\">Mongabay<\/a> Brown skuas and south polar skuas, two gull-like species that nest in Antarctica, are sometimes called the \u201cpirates of the Southern seas.\u201d These migratory seabirds are fierce, competitive predators that hunt or scavenge anything, from eggs and adult birds to seafood, mammals or garbage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re really tough animals \u2014 and they\u2019re dying,\u201d says Antonio Quesada, director of the Spanish Polar Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He gravely recounts why this season\u2019s field work in the Antarctic was like no other: A lethal strain of avian flu, H5N1,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/wahis.woah.org\/#\/in-review\/5599\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">breached this fragile ecosystem<\/a>&nbsp;in February. Only a handful of specially trained researchers were allowed onshore in outbreak sites, garbed in hazmat suits to prevent contagion and spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The true scale of the event is still unknown, but reports were grim. In the Falkland Islands, H5N1&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/falklandsconservation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/20240412.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">killed 10,000 black-browed albatross<\/a>&nbsp;and ravaged&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/environment\/bird-flu-found-penguin-species-sparks-fear-spread-antarctica-2024-01-30\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a gentoo penguin colony<\/a>. Scientists discovered a mass skua die-off:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/english.elpais.com\/science-tech\/2024-04-09\/scientists-discover-massive-outbreak-of-deadly-bird-flu-in-antarctica.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">50 carcasses littered a Beak Island nesting colony of 130<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quesada has rarely seen a single dead skua in 20 years\u2019 work in Antarctica. \u201cThey\u2019re an indicator species. If they\u2019re dying, what does it mean for other birds?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The threat posed by H5N1 extends far beyond the frozen South. Few people realize that the world is currently gripped in another serious pandemic \u2014 or, to be exact,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/bird-flu\/prevention\/hpai-interim-recommendations.html#:~:text=The%20panzootic%20of%20HPAI%20A,as%20well%20as%20domesticated%20animals.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a\u00a0<em>panzootic<\/em><\/a>, the animal equivalent. This virus has now infected more than 500 bird and mammal species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2024\/08\/animal-apocalypse-deadly-bird-flu-infects-hundreds-of-species-pole-to-pole\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mongabay Brown skuas and south polar skuas, two gull-like species that nest in Antarctica, are sometimes called the \u201cpirates of the Southern seas.\u201d These migratory seabirds are fierce, competitive predators that hunt or scavenge anything, from eggs and adult birds to seafood, mammals or garbage. \u201cThey\u2019re really tough animals \u2014 and they\u2019re dying,\u201d says Antonio [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"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-7283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avian-influenza"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7283","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=7283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7284,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7283\/revisions\/7284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}