By Jonathan AmosScience correspondentImage supply, Getty ImagesImage caption, Penguins collect on South Georgia in prodigious numbers11 March 2024Bird flu has been confirmed in 10 penguins on South Georgia, one of many world’s nice wildlife havens.Avian influenza had already contaminated different seabirds and mammals on the British Abroad Territory, however scientists report gentoo and king penguins have now fallen sufferer, too.The breeding season is closing on the sub-Antarctic island so the instant impacts are more likely to be restricted.However there will be concern for subsequent season when wildlife gathers once more en masse.The seashores on South Georgia are well-known for his or her spectacular aggregations – a million-plus people all jostling collectively to courtroom, mate and convey up their younger.”I liken South Georgia to the Alps with Serengeti-style wildlife round it. The wildlife concentrations across the coast are simply phenomenal – a number of species of penguins, albatrosses, and seals,” defined Dr Norman Ratcliffe, a fowl ecologist from the British Antarctic Survey. “If fowl flu had been to take a maintain and trigger very excessive mortality throughout the island, it could be of conservation concern globally. However in the mean time, it does appear to be considerably restricted in the way in which it is spreading,” he advised BBC Information.Picture caption, Scientists are on alert for indicators of fowl flu on islands across the Scotia SeaHigh Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) has been in existence for many years however the world is at the moment within the grip of a serious flare up, with the H5N1 pressure of the virus inflicting the deaths of numerous wild and domesticated birds.Antarctica and its outlying islands have escaped the worst because of their remoteness. However this example is on the flip. Chicken flu was first recognized on South Georgia in October 2023, within the massive scavenging seabird often called the brown skua, with detections in kelp gulls shortly after.Then, in January this 12 months, instances had been confirmed in elephant and fur seals. It is also unfold to Antarctic terns and wandering albatrosses.Penguins are the most recent animal group to be contaminated, with 5 gentoos and 5 kings testing constructive.The instances had been confirmed in samples despatched again to the UK to the Worldwide Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza on the Animal & Plant Well being Company (APHA) laboratories in Weybridge.Picture supply, Getty ImagesImage caption, Different animal teams, such because the wandering albatross, have had confirmed instances on South GeorgiaIt’s not a terrific shock. The virus has already obtained to gentoos on the Falklands some 1,500km to the west, so it was most likely solely a matter of time earlier than South Georgia’s additionally grew to become contaminated.”Skuas winter round South America as do big petrels and we expect these birds are the vector that purchased the illness into South Georgia,” mentioned Dr Ratcliffe.”Skuas are always in amongst the penguin colonies scavenging and preying on eggs and chicks. If there is a shock, it is that it is taken this lengthy for the virus to be manifested within the penguins.”Scientists are watching intently now to see how fowl flu interacts with the completely different penguin species, which on South Georgia embody kings, gentoos, macaronis and chinstraps. Macaronis, for instance, will spend a lot of the approaching southern winter at sea, which is able to assist them keep away from an infection. Kings and gentoos, nevertheless, will proceed to roost on shore, leaving them open to additional publicity.Picture supply, Getty ImagesImage caption, Gentoo penguins have already been affected within the FalklandsAs for the Antarctic correct, two useless skuas contaminated with HPAI had been lately picked up by Argentine scientists close to their Primavera base on the continent’s peninsula, so the virus is certainly transferring south.However how far it could progress and what its impacts is perhaps was extremely unsure, mentioned Dr Ashley Banyard, who leads the avian virology workgroup on the APHA.”Penguins reside in very shut proximity to one another, in order that lends itself to the concept they may unfold the virus quickly between one another. However we do not know the way simply the virus can get into completely different penguin species, what kind of medical illness it would trigger and the way quickly it would unfold between birds themselves,” he advised BBC Information.Surveillance is essential, and that is being assisted by the numerous cruise ships that now sail in Antarctic waters. Members of the Worldwide Affiliation of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) have lengthy had protocols to stop the unintended unfold of illness by vacationers in pristine environments, however these have now been stepped up due to fowl flu.”No one lands on a seashore till there’s been an evaluation executed to point out if there’s any unusual behaviour or excessive mortality,” mentioned Amanda Lynnes, the director of setting and science coordination at IAATO.”Antarctica is a big continent however we’re really fairly a small group in a means, so the data movement goes quickly to all stakeholders who have to know and might advise.”