On the white sands of Isla Damas, in the north of Chiliwhere tourists used to enjoy observing its rich fauna, today they are seen only sanitary brigades dressed in biosafety suits searching for dead animals.
Fear of bird flu forced the closure of the Humboldt Penguin National Reservein the Coquimbo region, where Damas Island is located and which is home to 56% of the reproductive pairs of this endemic species of Chile and Peru.
Product of the current bird flu crisisthis year 10% of the population of this penguin in Chile has died, according to the National Fisheries Service (Sernapesca).
“The Humboldt penguin is in a vulnerable conservation category and probably after this it will be in another category, much more at risk,” warns Gerardo Cerda, Sernapesca’s regional conservation and biodiversity manager.
For the past six months, teams from the Agricultural Livestock Service (SAG), the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) and Sernapesca have redoubled their efforts to prevent the spread of this disease in the reserve where there are also sea lions, small petrels and guanay cormorants.
Patrols go around this island collecting corpses to prevent the spread of the disease.
The death two weeks ago of thousands of cormorants on the Coquimbo coast mobilized several environmental brigades to quickly collect their remains.
Although it was ruled out that avian flu was responsible, it is not yet known what caused the death of the more than 3,500 specimens.
“The causes (of death) are still being sought, whether it is the El Niño current, climate change or toxins in the sea,” said Jorge Mautz, SAG’s regional director.
unprecedented crisis
In total, in Chile the H5N1 virus has affected fifty species, including pelicans, chungungos and seagulls. A 53-year-old man was infected and was admitted to a hospital in serious condition.
More than 1,300 Humboldt penguins and 8,000 other marine species, mostly sea lions, have died from bird flu.
Since December, the SAG has found more than 38,000 dead wild birds.
“The 1,300 (recorded cases) are probably less than the real number” of dead penguins, said Gerardo Cerda, from Sernapesca in Coquimbo, and explained that “there are sectors with cliffs, where the specimens can strand and not be seen.”
After one last patrol, officials returned with 25 carcasses of Red-headed Jocks, Gulls, and Cormorants, but no penguins.
“It has been distressing to see how these birds begin to die or look sick (…) We have never had this crisis,” said Pablo Arrospide, administrator of the reserve.
Mortality of sea lions
On the shore of Damas Island, the body of a sea lion decomposes under a rock, making it difficult to remove the corpse.
Chile is home to 40% of the world population of this species, with about 200,000 specimens.
In Dead wolves were detected in 13 of the 16 regions of the country, a mammal that had not been previously affected by this disease.
So far this year, the number of dead wolves is almost double the accumulated number from different causes in the last 14 years.
On a beach in the city of La Serena, also in the Coquimbo region, a baby sea lion approaches the coast. Sernapesca personnel try to catch it, but the animal manages to flee. A sign of good omen, according to officials who days before sacrificed a specimen that was paralyzed on the seashore.
Vaccines
Some countries, including China, Egypt and Vietnam, have organized campaigns of bird flu vaccinationwhich the World Health Organization (WHO) believes is a good measure to reduce the number of cases and reduce the risk to humans.
But its use is still primarily aimed at poultry and would carry certain risks.
When there is no good vaccination strategy, it can “induce the virus to evolve and generate differences that escape the vaccines,” Christopher Hamilton-West, a specialist in veterinary epidemiology at the University of Chile, told AFP.
The vaccines – which are not being used in Chile – do not cure infected animals and only slow down the spread of the virus, adds the expert.
Although there is no evidence that this disease is transmitted between humans, “it has affected other mammals, it is one step away from mutating and affecting people” directly, warns Muriel Ramírez, an epidemiologist at the Universidad Católica del Norte.
#Chile #redoubles #efforts #death #marine #fauna #due #bird #flu