Bird flu threatens Spanish science projects in Antarctica

“Several projects were canceled this year because we wanted to reduce the risk of infecting humans or becoming Risk of vectors transmitting diseases between different animal groups.” Spanish research project in Antarctica. “We have more new projects on animal groups lined up for next year; now it looks like some of them may not be carried out.

Three weeks ago, scientists from the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology of the Council for Higher Scientific Research (CSIC), an arm of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, announced that they had detected for the first time the presence of a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus in Antarctica.

The existence of the virus was confirmed on February 24 this year by a team of scientists led by CSIC researcher Antonio Alcamí at the Spanish Antarctic base Gabriel de Castilli on Decepcion Island. Ya work. Argentine scientists discovered the virus in two samples of skua carcasses found near Argentina’s Antarctic base of Primavera.

Fears of the arrival of bird flu have forced Spanish scientists to review Antarctic research plans for the summer, which runs from October to the end of March. Currently, only researchers who specialize in infectious diseases and viruses have access to animals.

Scientists need to get closer to specimens to collect information from sensors placed in colonies of penguins, elephant seals, sea lions or leopard seals, but the likelihood of contact with these species has been greatly reduced. One hope, Quesada noted: The sensors have a battery life of up to two years, which could mean that all data is not lost, although devices can fail. «We usually replace the batteries once a year. Hopefully next year they can collect at least some data, but I fear next season will be worse than this. “

Currently, researchers have not been able to collect data from the devices on six projects. “We have several projects that require downloading information from some sensors in penguin, sea lion, elephant seal, leopard seal habitats… but they don’t have access there,” Quesada added. For example, these projects seek to discover when penguins hatch, when they change their skin, or how they move between colonies. They also track the animals’ impact on the environment or sample bacteria in the aerosols produced by colonies.

Spain has two bases in Antarctica, located in the South Shetland Islands. Juan Carlos I Base was built in 1988 on Livingston Island; Gabriel de Castilla Base was built in 1989 on Decepcion Island. Since 2001, it has also maintained a temporary camp, called Camp Byers, on the Byers Peninsula on Livingston Island.