2024-01-08 15:52:28
The polar bear is more than ever the symbol of the upheavals affecting the world. It is now also a victim of the H5N1 virus, which is decimating the world’s bird population. In Alaska, the Department of Environmental Conservation discovered that a polar bear had died from infection with the avian flu virus, reports Geo. The news was announced at the end of December via a press release.
How did he get sick?
It was near Utqiagvik, in the far north of the country, that the animal’s remains were found last October. “This is the first reported case of a polar bear anywhere,” Alaska State Veterinarian Dr. Bob Gerlach told the Alaska Beacon. It is also the first animal listed as a threatened species in Alaska affected by the H5N1 virus.
The bear, which usually feeds on seals, may have eaten a dead bird infected with the virus, which was in its path. “However, it is not necessary for the bear to have directly eaten an infected bird to be sick. If a bird dies from this disease, especially if it is kept in a cold environment, the virus can persist for some time in the environment,” the veterinarian said. Other bears might have suffered the same fate.
Birds, but not only
This case, like others, clearly shows that the H5N1 virus no longer only concerns birds. The epidemic which has spread since 2021 first affected farmed birds before affecting wild birds and now mammals. Black and brown bears, bald eagles, foxes, elephant seals, sea lions, are all animals of which specimens have already been found infected with the virus.
The disease has also been detected in remote regions, both in the Arctic and Antarctic circles. The animals living in these regions have very often never been exposed to viruses of this type, which weakens them. The greatest risk would be that the virus affects penguin colonies. Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey fear “one of the greatest ecological disasters of modern times”.
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