2023-10-08 04:00:00
In the world there is developing a “panzoonosis”, which is a global epidemic of avian flu due to the diversity of animal species it affected. Since 2021 it has not stopped growing at “alarming rates” and has high mortality, according to the Pan American Health Organization. It affected millions of birds and also mammals.
In Argentina, panzoonosis also damaged the health of birds first last February, and since August it was detected that it caused the death of more than a thousand sea lions that were along the Atlantic coast, from the province of Buenos Aires to Tierra del Fuego.
In In the province of Rio, the highest number of sea lions killed by avian flu in Argentina was recorded.. 935 animals have already died, according to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. Within that total, 696 were in the Punta Bermeja protected natural area, 45 kilometers from the city of Viedma.
The veterinarian and doctor of biology Pablo Plaza, of Institute for Research in Biodiversity and Environment (INIBIOMA) – which depends on Conicet and the National University of Comahue – commented that there are several hypotheses to explain the situation. “One of the hypothesis is that the contagion has been through infected wild birds that cohabited with sea lions. It may also have happened in Peru. However, there is a possibility that the avian flu virus has adapted and is being transmitted between sea lions. This possibility has been suggested in other mammals, such as minks in Spain,” said the scientist.
“It is still not known why avian flu affects sea lions more. It also happened in Peru and Chile. With those that died in Argentina, there are already more than 20,000 deceased animals,” he added. “Salinity and temperature conditions can also allow the virus to stay longer and favor its transmission,” she said.
The expert commented that “there is the possibility that there are more cases of deceased animals in other jurisdictions, over large areas, and that have not yet been detected.” In the case of Río Negro, there are colonies with many specimens and people who work in those areas. It might have happened that this situation has facilitated surveillance and that is why there might be more deaths reportedsuggested Dr. Plaza.
Dina Migani, Secretary of Environment and Climate Change of the province of Río Negro, said that agents in the area were going to be trained to take samples and monitor cases: “We want to verify if there is any mutation of the virus, with a potential probability of infection, because it is not known how the wolves became infected. “It is estimated that the disease was transferred from birds to wolves, but there may be a mutation, with the possibility of contagion to humans.”
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