Virus Infects Penguins In Antarctica
A poultry virus brought to Antarctica by humans has infected its Emperor and Adelie penguins, raising concerns about the threat visitors pose to the icy continent, researchers said Thursday.
“Antarctica looks so pristine, you don’t think of disease. But it is nature’s refrigerator, and things survive,” said Dr. Heather Gardner, lead researcher with the Australian Antarctic Division.
“The potential for expeditioners and tourists to be (carriers) of disease as they move around the Antarctic may pose the greatest threat yet,” said the scientists, reporting in the journal Nature.
The infected penguins have not developed any disease from the infectious bursal disease virus, which causes immune deficiency and sometimes death in young fowl by hemorrhaging and obstruction of breathing. It does not infect humans.
The virus is widespread in poultry throughout the world, but it never before had been discovered in Antarctica.
The discovery will be raised at an Antarctic Treaty meeting in New Zealand next week, said the parliamentary secretary for the Antarctic, Sen. Ian Macdonald.
The researchers tested 52 Emperor penguin chicks and 133 adult Adelie penguins at three sites 25 miles to 37 miles from Australia’s Mawson base between December 1995 and February 1996.
Up to two-thirds of the Emperor penguins that were checked had virus antibodies. Significantly, only a far more remote site was free from infected penguins.
The researchers suggested careless disposal of poultry products, swooped on by scavenging birds, as an explanation for the spread of the disease.
It also could have been spread by “the movement of people carrying the virus on contaminated footwear, clothing, equipment or vehicles,” they said.
Migrating birds could not have brought the disease into Antarctica because only chicks suffer from it, and they do not fly in and out of Antarctica.
Strict controls on the disposal of poultry products in Antarctica were imposed in the 1980s, including a ban on eating chicken outside bases.