South Georgia island is home to one million king penguins, along with other penguin species including gentoos, macaronis and chinstraps (Picture: David Schultz/Getty Images/Mint Images RF)
Bird flu has arrived in the penguin haven of South Georgia island, sparking fears of deaths on a scale of ‘global concern’.
Home to nearly one million king penguins – half the world’s population – South Georgia had largely escaped the ravages of avian flu until now.
Despite the remoteness of this South Atlantic island, experts are still surprised it’s taken decades for the virus to infect the penguins living there.
They pack the beaches in their millions each breeding season in a spectacle of courting, mating and raising their young – a density perfect for the rapid spread of disease.
‘I liken South Georgia to the Alps with Serengeti-style wildlife around it’, Dr Norman Ratcliffe, a bird ecologist from the British Antarctic Survey, told BBC News.
‘The wildlife concentrations around the coast are just phenomenal – multiple species of penguins, albatrosses, and seals.
Penguins live in close proximity to each other, particularly when they cram onto the beaches for mating season (Picture: Enrique Aguirre Aves/Getty Images)
“If bird flu were to take a hold and cause very high mortality across the island, it would be of conservation concern globally.
‘But at the moment, it does seem to be somewhat limited in the way it’s spreading.’
The virus has been detected in five gentoo penguins and five king penguins, just as this year’s breeding season ends.
Macaronis and chinstraps also live on the island.
The British Overseas Territory of South Georgia is located in the southern Atlantic Ocean near the peninsula of Antarctica (Picture: METRO)
Its full impact won’t be seen until the penguins return to the British Overseas Territory for the next breeding season at the end of this year.
‘We don’t know how easily the virus can get into different penguin species, what sort of clinical disease it might cause and how rapidly it might spread between birds themselves’, Dr Ashley Banyard told the BBC.
He leads the avian virology workgroup at the UK’s Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA), which tested the confirmed cases at its International Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza in Weybridge.
Penguins aren’t the first species to fall victim to the virus on South Georgia.
It was first identified in the island’s brown skua, large scavenging seabirds, in October 2023, the BBC reported.
Soon after it was found in kelp gulls, and in January cases were confirmed in elephant and fur seals.
The avian flu has also spread to Antarctic terns and wandering albatrosses.
Elephant seals are among the animals infected with bird flu since the virus arrived on South Georgia (Picture: David Merron/Getty Images/Moment RF)
Bird flu, officially called High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI), is in the midst of a global surge.
The ongoing outbreak of the highly contagious H5N1 strain of the virus has ’caused devastation in animal populations’, according to the World Health Organisation.
It’s killed countless wild and domesticated birds around the world, and even at least one polar bear in Alaska as it spreads to other species.
The outbreak also killed a nine-year-old boy who ate infected poultry in Cambodia, which has seen five fatalities this year.
Although humans usually only catch bird flu from infected animals, the avian flu is a likely candidate for causing the next big pandemic if it mutates to allow human-to-human transmission.
When it does infect humans, it carries a mortality rate around 50%.
Experts warned a bird flu outbreak with high mortality among penguins on South Georgia would be of ‘conservation concern globally’ (Picture: Davie Gan/Getty Images/Moment RF)
Researchers warn the virus is only a few mutations or a sudden gene swap away from being able to spread from human to human.
Dr Nicole Robb, an assistant professor at Warwick University and a lecturer at Oxford University lecturer, said: ‘To date, there have been no sustained cases of human-to-human transmission.
‘However, if it does happen it will be a serious situation.’
The more bird flu spreads, the more H5N1 has the chance to mutate.
Before reaching the penguins of South Georgia, it had already infected the gentoos 932 miles west on the Falklands, the BBC reported.
Experts believe skuas may have brought bird flu to South Georgia and Antarctica.
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Two dead skuas infected with bird flu were recently found by Argentine scientists near their Primavera base in Antarctica.
Dr Ratcliffe said: ‘Skuas winter around South America as do giant petrels and we think these birds are the vector that bought the disease into South Georgia.
‘Skuas are constantly in amongst the penguin colonies, scavenging and preying on eggs and chicks.
‘If there’s a surprise, it’s that it’s taken this long for the virus to be manifested in the penguins.’
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