Animal Apocalypse Now

There is a devastating pandemic taking place this getting little attention outside of the scientific community.  Avian bird flu caused by the deadly H5N1 virus is now being passed mammal to mammal from pole to pole.  A joint study by the University of California Davis  School of Veterinary Medicine and Argentina's National Institute of Agricultural Technology has found clear mamma, to mammal transmission of the virus that is causing mass fatalities among bird and marine mammal populations.  There is mounting concern that the adaptive virus could jump to other species including humans.

The current H5N1 virus began causing disease among birds on a global scale in 2020 during the human

photo credit: V. Falabella

COVID pandemic.  It killed tens of thousands of seabirds in Europe before moving to South Africa. It entered the US and Canada in 2022 killing poultry and  wild birds before reaching South America in late 2022.  By August 2023 the virus was found in sea lions at the tip of South America, Tierra Del Fuego.  It moved swiftly north leaving a trail of death. [see chart]. Nearly all elephant sea pups (96%) in the fall 2023 breeding season at Peninsula Valdez, a major stronghold for the species died from H5N1.  [photo: dead elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) in Punta Delgada Argentina}

The highly adaptable virus has since split into two clades or genetic versions, one that infects marine mammals, while the other infects avian species. So far the virus has infected 485 bird species and 48 animal species.   The tragic truth is that the current panzootic is human caused.  A relatively mild form of wild avian flu mutated to infect domestic poultry where it spread rapidly among industrial-scale poultry farms.  The Delmarva Peninsula is a good example of farm-wetland overlap. It is the site of a $4.4 billion polutry industry that raised 600 million chickens in 2023, but also a stopover for migrating birds along North America's Atlantic Flyway.  Migratory wild birds are a highly efficient vector for the virus.  Now, the virus has been detected spreading to cows with 178 dairy herds infected. 

H5N1 did not breach isolated Antartica until February as far as science can determine.  The scale of the infection there is not entirely known, but anecdotal reports are grim. On the nearby Falkland Islands, 10,000 black-browed albatrosses died together with large scale breeding failures I 2023. Skuas are hardy scavengers that are hardly ever seen dying in large numbers. But a Beak Island nesting colony of 150 lost at least 50 adults to the disease. In the Arctic the first walruses have died of avian flu, which is especially concerning since they congregate in large haul-outs.

The disease has flared for four years with no end in sight.  Immunity may develop, but that will take a significant amount of time, while millions die. Man can help save endangered animals by immunizing his poultry against virus.  That is an expensive proposition, but much less than losing entire livestock herds or even thousands of humans.