Almost 30 African penguins have died from avian flu at the popular Boulders beach near Cape Town, a crucial breeding site in South Africa. According to experts, this raises concerns for the species as well as for other seabirds.
David Roberts, a clinical veterinarian at the South African Foundation For The Conservation Of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), said at least 28 out of 3000 penguins in the Cape colony have died from the virus since mid-August.
“It has been affecting seabirds in South Africa and other countries all over the world for the last year and we have had thousands of birds die” across the globe. Europe is facing the largest bird flu outbreak they’ve ever experienced.
South African environmental authorities said that the strain of the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza was similar to that detected last year among a range of wild seabirds, including Cape cormorants and common terns.
“This is a continuation of the outbreak that happened last year and it affects several different species of seabirds and at the moment we are quite concerned because the number of penguins that are being affected and dying from the disease is going up,” added Roberts.
SANCCOB has joined hands with the South African National Parks (SANParks) to patrol the beach every day looking for more birds that might have caught the virus.
Alison Kock, marine biologist at South African National says “there is almost no risk to people from the virus but we do ask people to make sure that when they visit the colony that they disinfect their shoes because it is transmissible between different seabird colonies and also poultry farms”.
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Picture: Twitter