Bird flu: Death of penguins in Antarctica studied – 04/05/2024 – Environment

Has bird flu killed hundreds, if not thousands of penguins in Antarctica?

That’s what researchers are trying to find out after a scientific expedition last month found at least 532 dead Adelie penguins, as well as thousands more that were likely dead, according to a statement from the University Federation of Australia.

Researchers suspect the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus killed the penguins, but field tests have been inconclusive, the university said. The samples are then being sent to laboratories that will hopefully provide answers in the coming months.

Scientists are concerned that the often fatal H5N1 influenza could decimate endangered species of penguins and other animals on the remote southern continent.

The disease has spread more aggressively in wildlife than ever since it arrived in South America in 2022 and quickly reached Antarctica, where the first case of H5N1 was confirmed in February.

“There is the potential for a massive impact on wildlife, which is already being affected by issues such as climate change and other environmental stresses,” said Meagan Dewar, a wildlife biologist at Federation University who participated in the latest expedition.

Dewar told Reuters that Adélie penguins were found frozen to death in sub-zero temperatures and covered in snow on Heroine Island.

Dewar and his small team of researchers were unable to account for all the bodies on the large island, so they estimate that, in total, thousands may have died at some point in the previous weeks or months.

A colony of approximately 280,000 Adélie penguins breeds annually on Heroína Island. Because they had already finished breeding, the living penguins had already relocated when the expedition arrived, Dewar said.

Dewar’s expedition found the presence of the H5 strain of bird flu on the Antarctic peninsula and three nearby islands in skua birds, predators that feed on penguin eggs and chicks.

Around 20 million pairs of penguins breed in Antarctica each year, according to data from the British Antarctic Survey.

This includes emperor penguins, which scientists fear will be nearly extinct by the end of the century as sea ice shrinks due to climate change. Melting sea ice in 2022 led to thousands of emperor penguin chicks drowning.

Emperor penguins may now face the additional threat of deadly bird flu, Dewar said.

“There is now the potential that emperor penguins could be affected in the spring of next year,” she said.