Bird Flu Detected in Antarctica for the First Time, Raising Concerns for Local Species

The British Antarctic Survey reports that the first bird flu cases have been found among Antarctic seabirds, raising concerns that the disease would spread quickly across crowded bird and animal communities.

East of South America's southernmost point and slightly above Antarctica's main continent is South Georgia, a portion of the British overseas colony. According to the British Antarctic Survey, the illness was spread by the birds on their return trip from South America.

On Bird Island, which is a part of the British overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the virus was discovered in colonies of the scavenger bird known as the brown skua. The bird flu is common in South America, where it has already killed an estimated 500,000 seabirds and 20,000 sea lions in Chile and Peru alone. These migrating birds likely took it with them from that region.

(Photo: by OYVIND ZAHL ARNTZEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images) Dead birds are collected along the coast in the Vadso municipality of Finnmark in Norway following a major outbreak of bird flu on July 20, 2023.

The HPAI H5 virus, which was first discovered in South America in October 2022, is at "substantial risk" of moving south, according to OFFLU, an open network of international avian influenza researchers, who issued the warning in August of this year.

In a study released on August 23, the OFFLU issued a warning that the illness may make its way to Antarctica and its outlying islands "due to the spring migration of wild birds from South America to breeding sites in the Antarctic."

Due to "their likely susceptibility to mortality from this virus, and their occurrence in dense colonies of up to thousands of pinnipeds and hundreds of thousands of birds, allowing efficient virus transmission," it was stated that there would be an "immense" negative impact on the population of wild birds and mammals in Antarctica.

Endangering Local Species

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, illnesses that normally occur among wild aquatic birds are what give rise to bird flu. The virus can spread to other animals through infected birds' saliva and other body fluids.

More than 100 million breeding birds, six species of pinnipeds, and 17 species of cetaceans reside in Antarctica and its outlying islands, according to OFFLU, which expresses concern about the potential for "efficient virus transmission" in the area.

Data collection and disease pattern analysis are two of the main goals of OFFLU, which was established in 2005 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Organisation for Animal Health.

The British Antarctic Survey, which is in charge of the national scientific operations of the UK in Antarctica, runs two research stations in South Georgia, one of which is at Bird Island, the location of the confirmed cases.

These instances are extraordinary, and this year has seen record-breaking bird flu epidemics in a number of nations. To stop the illness from spreading, slightly under 10 million birds were slaughtered in Japan; this reduced the availability of poultry and increased the price of eggs.