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Copyright © 2024 CGTN. 京ICP备20000184号
Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466
The lethal Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) bird flu virus that has already killed hundreds of millions of birds around the world is spreading across Antarctica, the remote southern continent, Spanish scientists Antonio Alcamí and Begoña Aguado warned on Monday, after witnessing what they called "a massive outbreak" in a colony of skua seabirds on Beak Island in Antarctica during a recent scientific expedition.
An undated picture released in March 2024 shows researchers checking the territory after detecting positive cases of H5N1 in Antarctica during a scientific expedition. /CFP
The expedition led by Australian scientist Meagan Dewar found 50 skua seabird carcasses on Beak Island. They tested 10 of the 50, and all of them tested positive. Additional cases have also been found at Hope Bay and on the Devil and Paulet islands, according to Spanish media EL PAÍS.
An undated picture released in March 2024 shows a researcher checking the territory following the detection of positive cases of H5N1 in Antarctica during a scientific expedition. /CFP
The disease has spread more aggressively in wildlife since arriving in South America in 2022 and rapidly made its way to Antarctica, according to The Straits Times.
Dewar's team confirmed the first case of H5N1 in Antarctica in February in two dead skua seabirds. On March 14, scientists from the Chilean Antarctic Institute also announced that they had detected the virus in nine Adelie penguins and one Antarctic cormorant on the continent.