Scientists in Antarctica track ‘baffling’ virus that could decimate penguins and other polar animals

A 23-meter-long sailboat set off last week from Argentina for Antarctica’s Weddell Sea with eight scientists, lots of cloacal swabs, and a genetic fingerprinting machine aboard. The Australis is headed for the southern continent’s teeming colonies of Adélie penguins, other seabirds, and marine mammals. The goal : to search for signs of a deadly virus that has nearly circled the world over the past 4 years, leaving behind a trail of devastated wildlife. Last month, Spanish researchers confirmed that H5N1, the highly pathogenic form of avian influenza, had finally turned up—as long feared—in Antarctica, in two dead birds called skuas near an Argentine research station. And last week, a Chilean-led expedition reported the virus in Adélie penguins and a cormorant (see map, right). The full extent of the outbreak is unknown, but the arrival of the virus “is a really big issue,” says Thierry Boulinier, a disease ecologist with the French national research agency CNRS. “It is likely that [it] will spread in Antarctica among densely breeding seabirds, notably penguins, and be responsible for further dramatic die-offs.” The deadly bird flu virus—known as clade 2.3.4.4b of the H5N1 subtype—was first detected in 2020. It probably arose from a less harmful virus circulating in crowded poultry farms, then spread to wild birds. It soon became the dominant H5N1 strain across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, spreading ...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research