Worst avian flu crisis ever recorded spreads across Antarctica

The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, which has caused the death of hundreds of millions of birds in the last five years around the world, is spreading across Antarctica, a pristine paradise for wildlife. An expedition led by Spanish virologist Antonio Alcamí has confirmed the presence of the virus “in all animal species detected at each site” on six islands in the north of the Antarctic Peninsula, according to a report sent to the Spanish Polar Committee and international authorities. The good news is that penguins appear to be more resistant than feared, but the pathogen is wreaking havoc on other species. On Joinville Island, scientists have observed that the virus has attacked crabeater seals “with particular virulence.”

Alcamí himself, along with his colleague Ángela Vázquez, were the first researchers to detect the lethal pathogen in Antarctica, exactly one year ago. The virologist, from the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center (CBM) in Madrid, had feared “a disaster” following the Antarctic winter, during which months of total darkness prevent scientists from studying what is happening on the continent. A month ago, Alcamí embarked on a new expedition, crossing the perilous Drake Passage from South America aboard the Australian sailboat Australis, with a mobile laboratory on board.

The team has already detected the virus in 28 carcasses of half a dozen different species: Antarctic pigeons, kelp gulls, crabeater seals, gentoo penguins, Adélie penguins and skuas, a migratory seabird. Alcamí‘s report, to which EL PAÍS has had access, warns that “the viral load in the dead animals is very high, which indicates a risk of exposure to the virus in the vicinity of the carcasses.”

The group has also observed the pathogen in 14 living specimens. “We have not seen signs of illness in penguins, but we have found the virus in dead animals of many species, and also in live penguins that we are sampling. Although we have not seen symptoms in some penguin colonies, the virus is circulating,” Alcamí explains to this newspaper, with two journalists deployed to the Spanish Gabriel de Castilla Antarctic Base, operated by the Spanish army. The researchers have detected the pathogen even in air samples taken in the penguin colonies, warns the report, sent to the Scientific Committee for Research in Antarctica, an international body.

Alcamí's team warns that the presence of the virus in colonies of apparently healthy penguins “has implications for human safety,” since many of these places are regularly visited by both scientists and tourists. The jump of highly pathogenic avian influenza to people is one of the worst nightmares for virologists, but at the moment the virus is not easily transmitted between humans. The World Health Organization has recorded 23 cases of infected people and eight deaths in the last five years, when the virus emerged in poultry and spread successfully in nature.

Last summer, scientists at Cornell University confirmed that the virus, which had been invading dairy farms in the United States for months, was jumping from cow to cow, and from cattle to cats. The researchers issued an alert. “Efficient and sustained mammal-to-mammal transmission is unprecedented. It is worrisome because it may cause the virus to adapt, enhancing its infectivity and transmissibility to other species, including people,” they warned in an urgent study.

Alcamí managed to obtain funding for his expedition in extremis thanks to the mediation of the president of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Eloísa del Pino, who obtained a donation of almost €300,000 from the Spanish Union of Insurers and Reinsurers (UNESPA). After taking samples in the Weddell Sea, the so-called CSIC-UNESPA Antarctic Expedition will continue for a couple of weeks searching for infected animals in the southern Antarctic Peninsula.

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