Penguins are being vaccinated – a devastating summer is expected
Australia has become the last continent to report its first cases of the H5N1 bird flu.
The virus is spreading rapidly, and this summer’s expected extreme weather could, in the worst-case scenario, create a perfect storm leading to the mass death of thousands of birds and animals.
‘The worst-case, catastrophic scenario would be the loss of entire species,’ says Darren Grover, biodiversity expert at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
On the outskirts of the Australian city of Melbourne, a desperate attempt is underway to save a group of birds. Every year, thousands of people watch the little penguins on Phillip Island make their nightly march from the water to their burrows. But the combination of bird flu and an expected super-El Niño threatens to be the death sentence for thousands of penguins.
A relatively wet Australian winter and spring have slowed the spread of the flu. However, most indications suggest that El Niño will bring a very dry and hot summer – something which, according to Darren Grover, a biodiversity expert at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), will increase the spread of the infection.
‘Birds will gather in ever-greater numbers, creating ideal conditions for the virus to spread,’ he says.
10,000 doses of vaccine
Phillip Island is home to around 40,000 little penguins – the largest colony in the world – covering an area of approximately 20 square kilometres. In the evenings, they gather at the water’s edge to waddle up to their nests together – a sort of mass gathering every evening. That is why the authorities in the state of Victoria have resorted to an emergency measure: vaccination. Around 5,000 penguins are to receive two doses of the vaccine, reports ABC.
A penguin is being vaccinated, weighed and fitted with a microchip. The photo was taken on 19 August.
‘We don’t know how successful this vaccination programme will be. It hasn’t really been used on wild birds before,’ says Darren Grover.
‘But if we use the vaccine and it saves some of them, that’s good, because in the worst-case scenario, most or all of them will die.’
But it is not only among birds that climate change is facilitating the spread of avian flu. Animals that eat them or live close to them, such as dingoes, quollas and Tasmanian devils (a marsupial), are also at risk of infection – animals found nowhere else. As the Australian summer approaches, there is growing concern for these already vulnerable animals, as the heat itself poses a direct threat.
The heat is coming
During the summer of 2019–2020, also known as the ‘Black Summer’, Australia was hit by massive bushfires. 33 people lost their lives as over 17 million hectares burned between November and March. Three billion animals died or were driven from their homes by the flames, the majority of them reptiles, according to a WWF report.
With two months to go until the official start of the Australian summer, the country is holding its breath in the face of what the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has warned could be the strongest El Niño on record. The fact that this instance of the phenomenon is predicted to be so extreme is linked to climate change.
According to a report from The Climate Impact Lab at the University of Chicago, global surface temperatures over the coming months will be 1.4 degrees higher than in a typical El Niño year. Up to 44 per cent more days of extreme heat are expected.
“The world must treat this as the urgent climate warning that it is. El Niño conditions will add fuel to the fire in an increasingly warmer world. The impacts will hit even harder, reach even further and cross borders at devastating speed,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres earlier this year.
Forest fires in Canberra in February 2020.
“We have to give it a go”
‘Even though bird flu is not directly linked to climate change, there is a risk that the situation could turn into a sort of vicious circle. If forest fires and droughts force animals into ever-smaller areas, the virus risks spreading at an ever-increasing rate. In the worst-case scenario, this could lead to mass extinction,’ says Darren Grover.
‘The worst, most devastating scenario would be the loss of entire species.’
For the penguins on Phillip Island, the breeding season began in August and runs until February. A first dose of the vaccine has already been administered to a selection of penguins. Whilst the vaccination of wild birds is still at an experimental stage, the authorities hope it will save future generations of these waddling crowd-pleasers.
Little penguins breed in colonies. File photo
Bird flu is mainly spread amongst birds. The disease is caused by several different strains of the avian influenza virus. Some types of the virus can infect humans, but this is very rare. To date, no human has been infected in Sweden.
Bird flu occurs every year in Sweden and across Europe amongst wild birds. Wild waterfowl, such as ducks and geese, can carry the virus without becoming ill and can spread the infection to other, more susceptible bird species, such as domestic fowl. You should therefore not feed wild birds near premises housing domestic fowl.
There are different forms of avian influenza. The highly pathogenic form leads to very high mortality rates, causes epidemics that can spread rapidly, devastates the poultry industry and results in strict trade restrictions. The low-pathogenic form of the virus usually causes only mild symptoms.
Source: Swedish Board of Agriculture.
El Niño and La Niña are phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) weather cycle. El Niño warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, whilst La Niña cools them.
El Niño recurs on average every two to seven years and usually lasts nine to twelve months. It often peaks around Christmas, hence the name El Niño (the ‘boy child’ – that is, Jesus).
The effects of El Niño, such as increased rainfall, usually affect parts of southern South America, the southern United States, the Horn of Africa and Central Asia, whilst severe drought can occur in Australia, Indonesia and parts of South Asia.
Sources: WMO, SMHI, NOAA
