This year has been marked by concerning developments in the virus’ spread, including widespread detections in wastewater and mutations observed in the virus.
Not really rare. It wrecked sea lion populations in Peru, penguin populations in the arctic. It was found in different bears species, foxes or pumas and as far as I understood it was deadly for them too. Millions of birds in wildlife. And now cows, cats and chickens.
If pigs get it (I don’t know if it happened already) it’ll get very serious. That’s how the “spanish” flu started in the USA.
[The hospital] also was home to a piggery and poultry was regularly brought in from surrounding villages to feed the camp. Oxford and his team postulated that a precursor virus, harbored in birds, mutated and then migrated to pigs kept near the front.
Because pigs are more readily infected with avian influenza viruses than are humans, they were suggested as the original recipients of the virus, passing the virus to humans sometime between 1913 and 1918.
[I fact-check as much as my time and preexisting knowledge allow. I post what I found to vouch for your comment and save other people time. I hope I don’t come across in the wrong way.]
penguin populations in the arctic
There are no penguins in the Arctic and the article you linked to doesn’t mention them. Where has bird flu infected penguins?
I see. I find it sad and alarming that a disease, however infectious, would reach Antarctica and wreak such havoc, but then again, all ecosystems are ultimately linked and little ever stays local. Thank you for replying and linking a source.
Not really rare. It wrecked sea lion populations in Peru, penguin populations in the arctic. It was found in different bears species, foxes or pumas and as far as I understood it was deadly for them too. Millions of birds in wildlife. And now cows, cats and chickens.
If pigs get it (I don’t know if it happened already) it’ll get very serious. That’s how the “spanish” flu started in the USA.
https://wildlife.org/highly-pathogenic-bird-flu-an-unprecedented-threat-to-wildlife/
That article is a sobering read. I wasn’t aware of the extent of the spread and thank you for sharing it.
That is indeed a theory, hypothesized in a paper from 2005 and mentioned on the Wikipedia article about the Spanish flu:
[I fact-check as much as my time and preexisting knowledge allow. I post what I found to vouch for your comment and save other people time. I hope I don’t come across in the wrong way.]
There are no penguins in the Arctic and the article you linked to doesn’t mention them. Where has bird flu infected penguins?
Not the person you asked, but they meant Antarctica.
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/scientists-investigate-thousands-dead-antarctic-penguins-bird-flu-2024-04-04/
I see. I find it sad and alarming that a disease, however infectious, would reach Antarctica and wreak such havoc, but then again, all ecosystems are ultimately linked and little ever stays local. Thank you for replying and linking a source.