Bird flu kills sea lions and thousands of pelicans in Peru's protected areas
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- 28 Mar 2023
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Bird flu has killed tens of thousands of birds, mostly pelicans, and at least 716 sea lions in protected areas across Peru, the authorities said, as the H5N1 strain spreads throughout the region.
Peru recorded its first case of the virus in November in birds in the north of the country. Since then it has killed 63,000 birds, according to government data.
"We have also recorded since mid-January the unusual death of many sea lions, so far we have about 716 dead sea lions in seven protected natural areas of the coast," said Roberto Gutierrez, head of surveillance of the National Service of Natural Protected Areas.
Since the beginning of 2021, bird flu has ravaged the world, killing more than 200 million birds due to disease or mass culling, the World Organization for Animal Health has said.
A sick pelican sits next to a dead one, on the shores of the river Camana after Peruvian authorities recorded first cases of bird flu in November 2022, in Camana, Peru, December 2, 2022. REUTERS/Sebastian Castaneda
In South America, bird flu cases have been detected in Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and recently in Argentina and Uruguay. In Brazil, the world's largest poultry exporter, there are still no confirmed cases.
In Chile, health authorities last week detected the first positive case in marine mammal, a sea lion on a beach in the north of the country. Read More…
