First Time! Confirmed Bird Flu In Antarctica And Threaten Colonial Economy

Berhitung di Antarctica. (Wikimedia Commons/Jerzy Strzelecki)

JAKARTA - Scientists for the first time confirmed the presence of a deadly strain of bird flu in the mainland of Antarctica, potentially posing a risk to penguin colonies in the South Pole.

"These findings show for the first time a highly pathogenic Avian Flu virus has reached Antarctica, despite the distance and natural barriers separating it from other continents," the Spanish Scientific Investigation High Council (CSIC) said, as reported by CNN on February 27.

The presence of the virus was confirmed on Saturday last week, in a sample of dead skua seabirds found by Argentine scientists near the Primavera base in Antarctica, CSIC added.

Kasus yang dikonfirmasi di peninsula Antarctica, terjadi setelah adanya kasus di pulau-pulau terdekat, termasuk di antara penguin gentoso, menyoroti risiko flu burung H5N1 terhadap koloni di wilayah tersebut yang telah memusnahkan populasi burung di seluruh dunia dalam beberapa bulan terakhir.

"The analysis convincingly shows that the poultry are infected with the H5 subtype bird flu virus and at least one of the dead birds contains a highly pathogenic bird flu virus," CSIC said in a statement.

Argentina's Antarctic Institute on Monday said the South American nation had teamed up with Spanish researchers to test samples from dead birds found early in the year near the Argentine base, which confirmed the virus.

It is known that hundreds of thousands of birds gather in dense colonies on the Antarctic continent and nearby islands, which allow this deadly virus to spread easily.

Data from the Antarctic Research Scientific Committee also shows confirmed cases at research centers.