Western Cape authorities confirmed that the outbreak of Avian Influenza among wild seabirds in the province seems to be under control as the number of dead birds is decreasing.
According to the provincial minister of environmental affairs, Anton Bredell, teams now discover about 400 carcasses a day compared to 700 at the beginning of the crisis.
“Over the past few days the teams have been seeing on average 400 dead birds per day. This has come down from roughly 700 at the start of this outbreak. It’s still not great but we are grateful for any improvement,” Bredell said.
Read also: Western Cape authorities continues to battle avian flu outbreak
Bredell reiterated that managing an Avian Influenza outbreak amongst wild seabirds is very difficult and only possible thanks to the efforts of multiple stakeholders.
“The worst affected area at the moment continues to be Dyer island, a bird breeding colony in the Overberg region but the numbers are also dropping there. At the moment it is about 250 dead birds per day, down from 500. The Cape Cormorant species remains the most affected by the outbreak,” Bredell added.
Thousands of dead Cape Fur seals have also been washing up on the shores of Shelly Beach, Elands Bay and Lamberts Bay with no explanation as to how they died. IOL reported that scientists believe that there may be something more sinister at play as they try their best to discover the source of the problem.
Read more:
Avian Influenza continues to ravage endangered bird population
Picture: Unsplash
