Highly contagious avian influenza reaches remote Marion Island

Bird flu has reached South Africa’s remote sub-Antarctic islands in the southern Indian Ocean, the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment confirmed on Tuesday.

The highly contagious avian influenza, also known by its scientific name HPAI (H5N1), is believed to have arrived with a migrating bird, with six known fatal cases identified so far, involving three different breeding seabird species.

“After an initial suspected case in a brown skua in mid-September 2024, another five suspected cases were found in early November 2024, involving three wandering albatross chicks and two southern giant petrel adults,” said the department.

“The virus can be transported long distances by migrating birds, and this is likely how the virus arrived on Marion Island.”

Marion Island and nearby Prince Edward Island are considered seabird breeding hotspots, home to almost half of the world’s wandering albatrosses and hundreds of thousands of penguins, and to large numbers of southern elephant seals and sub-Antarctic and Antarctic fur seals.

After a bird flu pandemic in 2021, the H5N1 strain was detected in seabirds and marine mammals in South Georgia in October 2023 and reached Antarctica in February. Suspected cases in the southern elephant seal population in the Crozet Archipelago, east of Marion Island, were reported on October 21, said the department.

Bird flu has wreaked havoc in recent years, with implications for conservation, biodiversity and the agricultural sector. The poultry industry has been particularly hard hit, and producers are exploring genetic research in the hope of developing resistant birds.

The implications of an outbreak in the sub-Antarctic islands are still unclear and researchers have been instructed to monitor the situation.

“The situation is being closely monitored by the 11 field personnel overwintering on the island, who have been trained to recognise possible HPAI signs in birds and seals, and in the necessary monitoring and mitigation methods,” said the department. “They will be taking all precautions to ensure they do not spread the virus, and they are collecting information to help with decisions about the appropriate response.

The department said it had developed a protocol for managing avian influenza in seabirds with the Western Cape Veterinary Services, marine ornithologists, marine mammal biologists, disease experts and colleagues overseas with similar experience. It would continue to work to monitor and limit the spread of the virus on the island.

TimesLIVE