Scientists examine 1000’s of useless Antarctic penguins for chicken flu By Reuters

By Jake Spring

(Reuters) – Has chicken flu already killed a whole lot, if not 1000’s of penguins in Antarctica?

That is what researchers are searching for to search out out after a scientific expedition final month discovered not less than 532 useless Adelie penguins, with 1000’s extra thought to have died, in line with an announcement from Federation College Australia.

Whereas the researchers suspect the lethal H5N1 chicken flu virus killed the penguins, the sphere exams had been inconclusive, the college stated. Samples are being shipped off to labs that the researchers hope will present solutions in coming months.

Scientists are involved particularly that the usually deadly H5N1 influenza may decimate threatened species of penguins and different animals on the distant southern continent.

The illness has unfold extra aggressively in wildlife than ever earlier than since arriving in South America in 2022 and quickly made its technique to Antarctica, the place the primary case of H5N1 was confirmed in February.

“This has the potential to have a large influence on wildlife that’s already being impacted by issues like local weather change and different environmental stresses,” stated Meagan Dewar, a wildlife biologist with Federation College, who participated within the newest expedition.

Dewar instructed Reuters that the useless Adelie penguins had been discovered frozen stable within the sub-zero temperatures and lined in snow on Heroina Island.

Dewar and the small group of researchers weren’t capable of tally all the carcasses on the massive island, estimating that a number of thousand died in complete at a while within the continuing weeks or months.

A colony of roughly 280,000 Adelies breed on Heroina Island annually. Having completed breeding, the reside penguins had already moved on by the point the expedition arrived, Dewar stated.

Dewar’s expedition did discover the presence of H5 pressure chicken flu on the Antarctic peninsula and three close by islands in skua seabirds, predators which feed on penguin eggs and chicks.

About 20 million pairs of penguins breed within the Antarctic annually, in line with the British Antarctic Survey.

These embody emperor penguins, which scientists worry will likely be practically extinct by the top of the century, as sea ice dwindles on account of local weather change. Melting sea ice in 2022 led 1000’s of emperor penguin chicks to drown.

Emperor penguins may now face the added risk of lethal chicken flu, Dewar stated.

“There’s now the potential that emperor penguins may very well be affected come springtime subsequent 12 months,” she stated.