2024-01-19 18:17:09
Decryption
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The highly pathogenic H5N1 virus detected in poultry farms now affects mammals (polar bears, elephant seals, cats) following having caused a massacre among wild birds. Worried regarding a quiet “massacre” of biodiversity, scientists also fear a possible transition to humans.
Melting of the sea ice induced by climate change, hunting, pollution… We have known that the polar bear has been threatened for years by human activities. An element is now added to this list: highly pathological avian influenza (HPAI). This avian flu, caused by a virulent strain of the H5N1 virus, killed a polar bear in northern Alaska (United States) in October. Confirmed at the end of December by local authorities following studying the animal’s tissues, this death is a dark first on a global scale. According to researchers, the death of the emblematic animal of the Far North reveals a potential ecological catastrophe because the plantigrade does not suffer the wrath of the virus alone. Far from there.
Normally, in October, thousands of elephant seals populate the long gravel beaches of the Valdes Peninsula, in Argentine Patagonia, to breed. But in 2023, many mammals were shaking their heads painfully, snot dripping from their prominent noses, amid the
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#H5N1 #avian #flu #migratory #birds #mammals #concern #Liberation
