(Bloomberg) -- An island halfway between South Africa and Antarctica, where half of the world’s wandering albatrosses breed, is under threat from a fast-spreading strain of bird flu.
High pathogenicity avian influenza, or HPAI, is suspected to have reached Marion Island, one of two sub-Antarctic Islands, controlled by South Africa, the country’s environment department said in a statement on Tuesday. It’s possibly causing the death of birds from at least three species on the island — brown skuas, wandering albatrosses and southern giant petrels.
“The virus can be transported long distances by migrating birds, and this is likely how the virus arrived on Marion Island,” the department said, adding that it has trained 11 personnel on the island to identify the disease in birds and seals in a bid to slow its spread.
HPAI has spread around the world since 2021, killing both domestic and wild birds as well as infecting some other species. It was detected in October last year in South Georgia, which lies south-east of Chile, arrived in Antarctica in February and the first suspected case on Marion Island was found in a brown skua in September.
Southern elephant seals on Possession Island, to the east of Marion Island, are also thought to be infected.
The Prince Edward Islands, which include Marion Island and Prince Edward Island, are the breeding and moulting sites for millions of seabirds including hundreds of thousands of penguins. It’s also home to southern elephant seals and antarctic fur seals.
The wandering albatross has the largest wing-span of any bird and are famed for following ships. There are thought to about 25,000 of them globally.
The outbreak is the latest threat to birds on Marion Island, which is also the site of the world’s biggest mouse-eradication project. Mice eat both adult birds and hatchlings.
--With assistance from Agnieszka de Sousa.
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