Bird flu is believed to be responsible for the death of tens of thousands of birds in Peru, but also of at least 3,500 sea lions. Wearing face masks and biosecurity suits, biologists took nasal and oral swabs last Friday from corpses washed up on the beach in the Paracas Nature Reserve, some 270 km south of Lima.

These members of the National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State (Sernanp) introduced long swabs into the nostril of the still recent corpse of a maned sea lion (Otaria flavescens, also called South American sea lion), to confirm the death by the H5N1 flu.

3% of the sea lion population

"Sernanp is identifying sea lions affected by avian influenza and continues its plan to monitor and control protected natural areas," said in a statement the agency, which has counted 3,487 dead maned sea lions in seven natural areas of the Pacific coast.

According to statistics from the authority under the Ministry of the Environment, these deaths represent just over 3% of the 105,000 sea lions recorded in Peruvian territory. Some 63,000 seabirds were reported dead from bird flu in Peru between November 2022 and March this year.

An epidemic that is gaining ground

Sernanp urged the population to "avoid any type of contact with sea lions and seabirds". Avian influenza is a disease that has no cure or treatment and causes high mortality in wild and domestic birds, such as ducks, chickens, chickens and turkeys.



In December, health authorities slaughtered some 37,000 poultry on a livestock farm. According to Sernanp, in addition to Peru, the bird flu virus has been detected in Bolivia, Uruguay and Argentina. Probable cases have just been reported in northern Chile.

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