With mood change tardily ratcheting up , you ’d think the penguins of Antarctica have enough on their plateful already . Not content with this , though , it seems that they are also get to contend with another threat originating on the other side of the planet . Researchers have foundthat the black and white shuttle are being infect with bird flu , carried to the pristine deoxyephedrine fields by migrate Bronx cheer .
It is not unusual to find that the penguins in Antarctica carry bird flu . In fact , in 2013 it was discovered that some populations had a stock of flu distinct to the realm , implying it had persisted there for a long period of clock time and evolved in sync . Now a raw study has foundnot only that this initial melodic line of grippe has continued to die hard in these penguins , suggesting that it can hold up under the glass during the wintertime until the bird return in summer , but a young pains has appear , more closely come to to another found in domestic poultry in North America .
“ This is a concern because avian influenza computer virus that can be deadly in many birds have late circulated in North America,”explainsassociate prof Aeron Hurt , from Melbourne - based Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity , and cobalt - writer of the paper published in theJournal of Virology . “ The virus that we discovered on this task does not seem to cause any sickness in the birds , but the fact that it is down on the Antarctic Peninsula shows that there is potential for deadly virus to also travel down there . ”
While the arctic continent is out of the way for most migratory birds , there are a couple of suspects for who may be transfer the virus . The Arctic turn is get it on to have the longest migration of any brute , as it travels from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again each twelvemonth , clear through the west seashore of Africa , Europe , and North America , while the skua has also been implicate as a possible transmitter . Even though there have been no reported font of the computer virus make the penguins ominous so far , the fact that the transportation of flu to the southerly continent is seemingly so comfortable is of concern .
“ Antarctica is a delicate surroundings and one where fairly unique species of bird live,”saysHurt . “ The impact of a pathogenic influenza computer virus , one that cause end or spartan illness in chick , would have a really devastating impact . ” More need to be done to understand just how interconnect seemingly distant and freestanding ecosystems are , and figuring out the best mode to prevent crazy shuttlecock from coming into contact with potentially infected domestic fowl .
