Current outbreak, which started in 2021, is estimated to have killed millions of wild birds and thousands of mammals globally

A polar bear has been killed by bird flu as the highly contagious H5N1 virus spreads into the most remote parts of the planet.

The death was confirmed in December by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. “This is the first polar bear case reported, for anywhere,” Dr Bob Gerlach, Alaska’s state veterinarian, told the Alaska Beacon.

It was found near Utqiagvik, one of the northernmost communities in Alaska, two years after this latest strain was detected in North America. Gerlach said it was likely the bear was scavenging on the carcasses of infected birds.

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The current outbreak of the highly infectious variant of H5N1 – which started in 2021 – is estimated to have killed millions of wild birds. Globally, thousands of mammals have also died of the virus, including black bears and brown bears. Bald eagles, foxes and kittiwakes are among the species to have died of the virus in Alaska in recent months.

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  • breakfastmtn@lemmy.caOP
    10·
    1 year ago

    It’s not clickbait.

    Ecosystems in polar regions are particularly vulnerable to bird flu because they contain many animals found nowhere else in the world which have never been exposed to similar viruses. They are also among the places most affected by climate breakdown.

    They’re aren’t saying that it wasn’t thought possible for the virus to infect polar bears. It’s news because the virus has reached a vulnerable species in a highly vulnerable ecosystem for the first time. That was predicted previously but not known until now.

      • breakfastmtn@lemmy.caOP
        4·
        1 year ago

        Pretty sure that’s the same bear. Utqiagvik is the largest city in North Slope and one of just a few cities in the Arctic. The virus was detected 3 weeks ago but we don’t know when it was reported on that USDA site. That still makes the detection in polar bears and in the Arctic very recent. That information was probably only publicly available more recently than 3 weeks ago.

        The earliest reporting I could find was 3 days ago in Alaskan press and earlier today in nonlocal reporting.

        I still say it’s legit news, and not click bait. Appreciate the civil discussion though!