Polar bear dies from bird flu as H5N1 spreads across globe
Polar bear dies from bird flu as H5N1 spreads across globe
Current outbreak, which started in 2021, is estimated to have killed millions of wild birds and thousands of mammals globally
A polar bear has been killed by bird flu as the highly contagious H5N1 virus spreads into the most remote parts of the planet.
The death was confirmed in December by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. “This is the first polar bear case reported, for anywhere,” Dr Bob Gerlach, Alaska’s state veterinarian, told the Alaska Beacon.
It was found near Utqiagvik, one of the northernmost communities in Alaska, two years after this latest strain was detected in North America. Gerlach said it was likely the bear was scavenging on the carcasses of infected birds.
. . .
The current outbreak of the highly infectious variant of H5N1 – which started in 2021 – is estimated to have killed millions of wild birds. Globally, thousands of mammals have also died of the virus, including black bears and brown bears. Bald eagles, foxes and kittiwakes are among the species to have died of the virus in Alaska in recent months.
2020 - S05E02 - Polar Bear Bird Flu
A polar bear has been killed by bird flu as the highly contagious H5N1 virus spreads into the most remote parts of the planet. TV-MA, 52 mins
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Or casino blender dude interruptions instead.
Imma wait till the season finale and binge watch then
Would this not be s05e01?
sadly, no…
2020 - S05E01 - Earthquake Aftershock Plane Crash [Season Premier]
The death toll from the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan’s west coast on Monday has risen to at least 30, according to Ishikawa prefecture authorities. More than 35 aftershocks greater than a magnitude of 2.5 have struck near the epicenter of Japan’s earthquake in the past 24 hours, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Later, Japan Airlines jet bursts into flames after collision with earthquake relief plane at Tokyo Haneda airport. TV-MA, 104 mins
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Ep. 1 was a clip show.
I would really appreciate help processing this.
The bird is sick, bird dies, bear eats bird, bear dies.
It shows that this particular influenza strain can infect both bears and birds.
Wash your hands, stay home if you're sick, don't eat birds that have died from influenza.
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Not necessarily; while ripping the bird apart to eat it, if blood and whatever other residues get on/in soft tissues like nose or around eyes, infection spreads easily that way.
Polar bears are birds.
In seriousness I don't know if this is fucked up or just something that happens sometimes.
Viruses can jump between species , especially if their target proteins are non-specific. It’s not necessarily rare, but nonetheless destructive.
Can confirm that it's fucked up that polar bears are birds and that birds are kind of dinosaurs and that this virus has now spread to dinosaurs.
If the bird flu can penetrate the Arctic it can penetrate the Antarctic. If that happens we'll lose a lot of penguins, far more than we can "afford".
A lot of penguins aren't in the Antarctic, so it may already be spreading through populations in places like South Africa and the Galapagos Islands.
thousands of mammals have also died of the virus, including black bears and brown bears
(emphasis added)
This entire article is clickbait (or at least not "news") b/c while this may be the first time that a POLAR bear (reportedly) bit the dust, that is not saying really anything at all that was not already known.
spreads into the most remote parts of the planet.
That said, it does keep the fact that these viruses are real and have implications for human health & our economy (e.g., egg prices at grocery stories) in our cultural consciousness.
It's not clickbait.
Ecosystems in polar regions are particularly vulnerable to bird flu because they contain many animals found nowhere else in the world which have never been exposed to similar viruses. They are also among the places most affected by climate breakdown.
They're aren't saying that it wasn't thought possible for the virus to infect polar bears. It's news because the virus has reached a vulnerable species in a highly vulnerable ecosystem for the first time. That was predicted previously but not known until now.
We still have polar bears?
Not anymore.
While H5N1 gaining the ability to spread human to human is scary, it is an influenza virus which doesn't mutate as quickly as coronaviruses do. We know how to make vaccines for the flu and have the ability to make one rather quickly.
Yeah except like 30% of the population is anti-vax :|
Well... Maybe that number will go lower.
I volunteer to vaccinate the polar bears! 💉🐻❄️❄️
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