First cases of bird flu confirmed in Antarctic region, over 1,000 miles from South America

Scientists are concerned after confirming the first-ever known cases of the bird flu in the Antarctic region, a discovery that illustrates the sweeping impact of the virus that has killed hundreds of thousands of birds around the world.

Staff from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) swabbed populations of brown skua birds after reports of “several potentially symptomatic birds” and unexplained deaths on Bird Island, South Georgia, a remote island more than 1,000 miles east of the southern tip of Argentina, the institute wrote on its website.

Norman Ratcliffe, a seabird ecologist with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said the agency found a giant petrel bird that was showing signs of bird flu on Sept. 17.

“It was lethargic, showing uncoordinated behavior, twitching of the head,” Ratcliffe said to USA TODAY on Monday. “The next day it had died and was being savaged by skuas.”

By Oct. 7, the organization found another dead skua, and since then the number of skua deaths has increased quite a bit, he said.

Swab samples were returned to the United Kingdom so the Animal and Plant Health Agency laboratories in Weybridge could test them. The samples came back positive for the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza or HPAI.

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Researchers think birds contracted the virus in South America

The British Antarctic Survey believes the virus is spreading through natural pathways.

BAS figured brown skuas and giant petrels would bring the disease to Bird Island because they are scavengers, increasing their chances of eating infected flesh, Ratcliffe said.

While the source of the disease on Bird Island is not certain, it is likely that it was introduced via skuas returning from their migration in Argentina, where there are known to be a high number of cases, researchers said.

”If the birds are sneezing and coughing, it transmits that way, but particularly through feces,” Ratcliffe said. “These scavengers will be going around all the different seal and bird colonies … we expect to start to see it infect other species at some point in the near future.”

Discovery sheds light on when birds show symptoms

The main takeaway from the positive tests is that the birds who contract the virus are able to travel far distances before showing signs of it. Researchers thought the birds would get sick on their way back to the island and wouldn't make it such a long distance but they did, he said.

"It's a matter of days between the bird catching it and it starting to get symptoms," he said. "This appearance on South Georgia doesn't mean it's on the way to Antarctica but it does show that those sorts of journeys are possible. It's kind of likely that we will start to see cases in an in the peninsula region before too long."

Containing the outbreak

BAS said it's working with the Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands and following its response plan to monitor and manage the outbreak.

The British Antarctic Survey has two research stations in South Georgia, including the one at Bird Island, where the bird flu cases were confirmed. Most field work involving animal handling has been suspended due to the recent positive tests.

According to the agency, biosecurity measures such as enhanced cleaning of clothing and field equipment are still in place.

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What is bird flu? More on the viral disease that has swept through populations across the world

Avian influenza is a viral disease that mainly impacts birds.

Low pathogenic avian influenza viruses are common in wild birds and often cause no signs of disease, the British Antarctic Survey said. However, some strains of the virus are highly pathogenic in domestic poultry and can cause high death rates if they escape into wild bird populations. These strains are known as highly pathogenic avian influenza.

The current outbreak of the H5N1 virus started in 2022 and has killed many seabirds in the Northern Hemisphere, the south of Africa, around the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and throughout South America.

The virus mainly impacts birds, but some mammals have been infected, likely due to them eating infected birds or carcasses. Cases have also been found in some marine mammals where consuming infected birds doesn’t apply.

The World Health Organization has expressed concern about the increasing number of detections of the current H5N1 strain and posed the question of whether the virus might adapt to infect humans more easily.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bird flu: First cases recorded in Antarctic region on Bird Island