Is bird flu also behind the mysterious deaths of whales and dolphins around the world? In recent months, H5N1 infections have also been reported in mammals such as sea lions, raccoons, foxes, bears and martens. Experts fear that the virus is increasingly adapting to mammals and could become more dangerous for humans.
Two dolphins and a porpoise recently washed up dead off the English coast. An autopsy revealed that the whale had contracted a strain of bird flu. The wave of bird flu with the highly contagious H5N1 virus, which has been rampant since the beginning of last year, has already affected more than 200 million domestic and wild birds worldwide.
Hundreds of harbor seals and seals perished
In New England in the northeastern United States, hundreds of harbor seals and gray seals have recently died of H5N1, a research team from Tufts University in Medford, USA, reports in the journal “Emerging Infectious Diseases”. The animals had probably eaten dead birds infected with the circulating line 2.3.4.4b of the A/H5N1 virus (pictured below).
Virus kills about half of infected animals
In Russia, there is said to have been a similar event in the Caspian Sea. Canada has reported a seal hunt near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Experts were particularly concerned about the outbreak of bird flu at a Spanish mink farm. They see signs that the H5N1 virus, which kills about half of all animals, is adapting to mammals – becoming more dangerous to humans as a result.
WHO chief urges vigilance
“The recent spread to mammals needs to be closely monitored,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO), said in February. However, he emphasized that the WHO currently estimates the risk of the bird flu pathogen H5N1 to humans as low. However, he urged vigilance, one must “prepare for any change in the status quo”.
In the past, bird flu outbreaks – particularly in Southeast Asia and Egypt – have also resulted in isolated human deaths.
Source: Krone
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