SANTIAGO, Chile – Nearly 9,000 sea lions, penguins, otters and small cetaceans have died in an avian flu outbreak battering Chile’s north coast, the South American nation’s fisheries service stated Thursday.
Since the start of 2023, greater than 7,600 sea lions, 1,186 Humboldt penguins — an endangered species that breeds solely in Chile and Peru — and a number of other otters, porpoises and dolphins have been discovered useless alongside the coast, the Sernapesca service stated in an announcement.
The illness was current in 12 of Chile’s 16 areas, it added, and introduced the activation of “surveillance protocols” alongside the coast, together with burying affected animals in a bid to stop additional virus unfold.
Since late 2021, one of many worst international avian influenza outbreaks on document has seen tens of hundreds of thousands of poultry culled, mass wild fowl die-offs and a rising variety of infections amongst mammals in a number of international locations.
In Cambodia, an 11-year-old lady fell in poor health in mid-February with a fever, cough and sore throat, and died from the H5N1 fowl flu virus, in line with the well being ministry there.
Her father additionally examined constructive, however Cambodian well being authorities dominated out human-to-human transmission.
It is uncommon that fowl flu jumps over into mammals — and rarer nonetheless that people catch the doubtless lethal virus.
There is not any remedy for the illness, which is usually lethal in wild and domesticated birds.
In March, Chile signaled its first case of human an infection, in a person aged 53.
Elsewhere in South America, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru — with a whole lot of sea lion deaths — have additionally reported instances. — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
