Bird flu kills nearly 9,000 marine creatures in Chile

Chile's fisheries agency says nearly 9,000 sea lions, penguins, otters and marine mammals have died in an avian flu outbreak off Chile's northern coast.

Thousands of dead sea lions washed up on beaches in Chile. (Photo: Arica Municipality/AFP/France 24).

France 24 quoted Chile's National Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture recently saying that since the beginning of this year, the country has discovered more than 7,600 sea lions, 1,186 Humboldt penguins - animals at risk. extinct living only in Chile and Peru, with a few other species such as otters, dolphins and porpoises, dying along the coast.

The agency also said the epidemic has appeared in 12 of Chile's 16 regions. They announced the activation of surveillance measures along the coast, including measures to bury infected animal carcasses to prevent the spread of the virus.

Since late 2021, the world has recorded one of the worst outbreaks of bird flu . Tens of millions of poultry have been culled, wild birds have died en masse, and the number of infections in mammals has increased in some countries.

Officials in Chile are burying animals that die from bird flu to prevent the spread of the virus. (Photo: Arica Municipality/AFP/France 24).

Cambodia's Ministry of Health said that in mid-February, an 11-year-old girl died from infection with the H5N1 bird flu virus with symptoms of fever, cough and sore throat. Her father's test results were also positive, but the Cambodian Ministry of Health has ruled out human-to-human transmission.

Avian influenza very rarely infects mammals and is even rarer in humans. This disease has no cure and is often fatal to both wild and domesticated birds.

In March, Chile recorded its first human case, a 53-year-old man. In other places in South America such as Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru, people also discovered hundreds of dead sea lions.