“That is the primary polar bear case reported, for anyplace.”
Iced Out
Polar bears cannot catch a break. First, you’ve gotten Arctic ice decreasing year after year resulting from local weather change. And oil drilling that may doubtlessly destroy their snowy dens. And now there’s one other factor to fret about: the hen flu.
Alaska officers confirmed last month {that a} polar bear died from Extremely Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), particularly the EA H5N1 pressure. That is hanging as a result of in any other case, information present that the contagion principally killed birds, together with the enduring bald eagle, in 2023 — in addition to not less than one crimson fox.
In different phrases, this pernicious virus has reached even essentially the most distant elements of the planet, and that large mammals just like the polar bear usually are not proof against the hen flu, according to The Guardian. The present hen flu outbreak first flared up in 2021.
“That is the primary polar bear case reported, for anyplace,” mentioned Alaska’s state veterinarian Bob Gerlach to local news outlet Alaska Beacon.
Gerlach mentioned the bear, which is taken into account a threatened species beneath United States rules, might have eaten a hen contaminated with the virus, however it might even have been uncovered to the hen flu in one other, unknown manner.
“If a hen dies of this, particularly if it’s stored in a chilly atmosphere, the virus might be maintained for some time within the atmosphere,” mentioned Gerlach.
Birdemic
The hen flu has been wreaking havoc all over the world in the last three years, coincidentally occurring on the identical time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It hasn’t gotten the lion share of headlines, not like COVID, but it has hit the poultry industry hard, struck dead birds in the wild, and killed some mammals such as foxes, cats, and now a polar bear.
The New York Instances reported back in December that it is also “induced a small variety of deaths in folks, primarily in those that had shut contact with birds. The danger to most of the people stays low, consultants say.”
How do you cease the hen flu from spreading? There does not appear to be a simple repair. Poultry farms have turned to culling their large infected flocks, usually by mainly roasting birds alive. Looks as if the treatment is as unhealthy because the illness.
Extra on polar bears: Scientists Find Secret Polar Bear Clan Hidden for Centuries in Greenland
