H5N1 originated in 1996 on a large Chinese goose farm and in 2005 jumped to wild waterfowl in freshwater. The fact that it has now ‘finally’ switched to the sea raises many questions, says Camphuysen. “Seabirds of all places have been spared so far. This greatly accelerates the spread of the virus among wild birds, possibly as far as the southern hemisphere.”
For the research on Foula – which will be published in the scientific journal Scottish Birds – Camphuysen and his Scottish colleague Sheila Gear examined a colony of great skuas. Compared to an earlier census in 2015, that population is estimated to have decreased by 60 to 70 percent. “The freshwater pools on the island were full of rotting corpses of large skuas killed by the flu,” says Camphuysen.
Further research is being conducted on Foula that focuses on the question of ‘how long such areas will remain dangerous for humans and animals’. According to Camphuysen, such research is also in our own interest, because people are also susceptible to H5N1. Research by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that since 2003, 863 people worldwide have been infected with the virus, of whom more than half (455 patients) have died.
Health service: bird flu epidemic worst ever
The current bird flu epidemic is the worst ever recorded in Europe, European health service ECDC reports. The highly pathogenic strain of the virus has spread across 37 European countries, from Spitsbergen in Norway to Ukraine.
Since the epidemic started last year, 2467 outbreaks among poultry birds have been reported in Europe. In total, 48 million birds were killed. Also, 3,573 cases of the virus in wild birds were detected.
People in Europe have not been infected with the bird flu virus recently, the health service said. The risk of the epidemic to public health is therefore low. The organization does point out that the risk for people who work with birds is higher. Staying “vigilant” is therefore important. The service emphasizes the importance of testing for zoonoses. These are infections that can be transmitted from animals to humans, as happened with the coronavirus, for example.