The mainstream media has started reporting on the H5N1 bird flu, saying it’s “killing” birds on Antarctica. The highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza is spreading south along the Antarctic Peninsula and could devastate populations of penguins and other seabirds.
“It’s scary. Fortunately, it’s affecting just a few [birds],” says Juliana Vianna at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago. “I hope it stays that way, but avian flu in Chile and Peru was a disaster. It killed thousands and thousands of seabirds and sea lions.”
According to a report by New Scientist, between November 2024 and January 2025, Vianna’s team surveyed 16 nesting sites of seabirds along the Antarctic Peninsula. The researchers found 35 dead skuas with no signs of injury. Samples from 11 of the bodies tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus, which has been spreading worldwide in recent years.
“The reported deaths of skuas is concerning,” says Thijs Kuiken at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He stated that some avian species in the region are found only on small islands but because of their susceptibility, they could be wiped out by bird flu.
Because penguins breed in dense colonies, the fear is that H5N1 could spread among them rapidly and kill off a large proportion of some populations, many of which are already in decline because of climate change. Vianna claims that the susceptibility of birds to H5N1 varies from species to species, so some penguin species may be resistant.
The highly pathogenic form of H5N1 bird flu has been circulating in Europe, Asia and Africa since 2020, killing many wild birds and causing outbreaks on poultry farms. In the UK, for instance, H5N1 killed a quarter of gannets in 2023. –New Scientist
The United States is now doubling the money already spent to “fight” the bird flu virus.
Ruling Class Doubles $1.1 Billion Already Spent To “Fight” Bird Flu
The fear mongering continues.
The Overhyped Threat of a Human Bird Flu Pandemic is a Hoax to “Reset” Our Food System
Read the full article here
