Avian flu affects Peru and causes a slaughter in sea lions and birds

A maned sea lion in the Ballestas Islands off Peru, 2015. © Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 Wojciech Kocot

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

This H5N1 flu has already killed at least 63,000 wild birds in protected areas.

More worrying, sea lions, therefore mammals, have been contaminated and died on the Peruvian coast.

Advertisement

Read more

With our correspondent in Lima,

For several weeks, an epidemic of bird flu has been taking place in Latin America.

Peru is one of the most affected countries.

A massive outbreak of bird flu in mammals had already happened in Europe, but never in Latin America.

More than 700 maned sea lions (Otaria flavescens) have been infected and found dead on beaches in Peru.

An underestimated figure, according to state services.

A lioness also died of the virus in a zoo in the center of the country.

According to Peruvian and Argentinian researchers, there was direct contamination between birds and sea lions.

These researchers assume, without having demonstrated it for the moment, a transmission between mammals.

They also fear an extension of the epidemic to endangered species, such as the Andean condor.

Insufficient measures in the face of the epidemic

Since the first alerts three months ago, Peru has declared a state of health emergency.

But several specialists deplore insufficient measures and monitoring to limit the epidemic.

Transmission of the virus to humans remains rare, however, recalls the World Health Organization (WHO).

For the moment, only one case has been identified in South America: a 9-year-old Ecuadorian girl who was in contact with backyard poultry was infected (and treated) in Ecuador in January.

In 2022, four confirmed cases have been identified worldwide.

►Also read: In France, the outbreak of avian flu continues, concerns for the sector

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

• Peru

• Avian Flu

• Animal health

• Health and medicine