Migratory birds that interact
with infected poultry in North and South America blamed as scientists worry
virus reaching Antarctica more often than thought
Australian Associated Press
Tuesday 20 September 2016
06.32 BST
The discovery of a new strain of
bird flu in Antarctic penguins has raised concerns the virus is reaching the
frozen continent more often than previously thought, flown in by migratory
birds.
Australian researchers helped
uncover the new strain of avian influenza in the chinstrap penguin in 2015,
finding striking similarities to a North American strain, which meant it had
been introduced to Antarctica only
recently.
The virus was first detected in
Antarctica in 2013, but the discovery of the new strain has raised a red flag
to the vulnerability of penguins to avian flu and its capacity to reach
Antarctica.
Associate professor Aeron Hurt,
of the Melbourne-based Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, said
scientists had previously thought viruses rarely reached Antarctica.
“What the most recent finding shows
is that viruses do get down there more often than we thought and it’s a red
flag towards the future,” Hurt said on Tuesday.
“Our concern with that is that
there have been viruses over the last couple of years that have been quite
deadly to certain types of birds.”
No comments:
Post a Comment