Chile today reported 1,535 sea lions and 730 Humboldt penguins dead as of last Friday due to the avian influenza virus, especially in northern regions, and also in the center-south of the country.
“Events like the ones that are happening now have never happened in Chile. Unfortunately, there has been a strong maintenance of this virus in wildlife,” warned the director of the Chilean National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca), Soledad Tapia.
Although there are hundreds of dead mammals, the species most affected by avian influenza were wild birds such as pelicans, said the expert.
The region of Arica and Parinacota, in the north, is “the most affected”, with 709 sea lions and 343 dead penguins, followed by Antofagasta, Tarapacá, and Atacama, all in the north, reported the Spanish scientific agency, Sinc.
They also found dead marine animals of protected species in the Biobío region, some 500 kilometers south of the capital, the agency said.
The Chilean Ministry of Health confirmed on March 29 the first human case of bird flu in this country.
“The virus can be in the liquid remains or in the feces of the animals. We call not to touch them, to keep distance and to report this case to the institutions that work on this,” Tapia warned.
Among the institutions, the official mentioned the one she directs (Sernapesca) and the SyAG, which is the Agricultural and Livestock Service in Chile.
According to Sinc, Chile is not the only country with a large number of mammals killed by bird flu, and recalled that the Peruvian authorities notified -at the beginning of March- “the death from influenza of 3,492 sea lions, more than 3% of the population of that species in that country, and 63,000 birds in natural areas of the coast”.
