The H5N1 variant of bird flu is devastating the country’s sea lion (Otaria flavescens) population of around 105,000. This month, Peru’s national parks service, Sernanp, recorded the deaths of 3,487 sea lions, 3.29 percent of the total number, as well as five much less common fur seals (Arctocephalus australis), in seven protected areas along the coast. . But scientists estimate that the true number of bird flu deaths is likely to be much higher. The highly pathogenic avian influenza subtype A outbreak was first detected in Peruvian pelicans on the north coast in November, but soon spread south, also killing Peruvian gannets, sanderlings and Guanay cormorants. Sernanp has counted at least 63,000 Dead Sea birds in national parks and protected guano islands, many more can be seen scattered along the coast of the country, home to one of the richest fisheries in the world. Infected birds waddle along public beaches unafraid of crowds of sunbathers enjoying the summer sun.
Scientists are concerned
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The fact that the virus is not only in birds but also in mammals means that it is potentially hazardous to humans. “It’s currently happening in several species of mammals, so we need to take precautions to avoid another pandemic for humans,” says Mariana Leguia, who runs the Genomics Laboratory at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima, who analyzed samples collected along the coast of the country since November. Scientists are concerned not only that the virus has jumped from birds to mammals, but that mammal-to-mammal transmission could be a possibility. In February, the World Health Organization warned of a possible avian flu pandemic after the last year and a half it made up the world‘s deadliest outbreak of the disease in domestic and wild birds.