What are the reasons for the bird flu epidemics that are progressing in South America?

You record a advance “unprecedented” outbreaks of Avian Flu In wild birdspoultry and mammals worldwide, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (WHO). For the first time, they occur in countries of South Americalike Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

It is a viral infection that mainly affects birds. But in 2020 a new strain of the virus, which they call “Clade H5N1 2.3.4.4b”. Since last year, this strain has circulated in North America and then reached South America by Migrator birds.

These birds can carry the virus. Sometimes they have no symptoms. In other situations, they can also get sick. If they come into contact with poultry, such as hens or chickens that are together and in large numbers, transmission of the virus can occur.

More than 100 million poultry have already died or been culled for having the virus between last October and February 3, according to the OMSA.

In the Argentina, on February 15, the first case of avian influenza in the Andean goose was confirmed in Jujuy and a health emergency was declared. Since then, outbreaks have also been recorded in different species of wild birds and poultry (near homes) in the provinces of Córdoba, Neuquén, Salta, Santa Fe and Buenos Aires, according to analyzes by Senasa of Argentina.

Until now, transmission from animals to humans was very rare. In America, since last year, only 2 cases of people affected by bird flu have been reported, who had been in close contact with birds.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) deemed the risk of a bird flu pandemic in humans to be “low”. But this week experts on the subject met, and one of the officials of the United Nations health agency, Sylvie BriandHe called recent progress “worrying”.

In Cambodia, health authorities reported the death of a 11 year old girl by infection with the H5N1 virus strain. Tests are underway on 12 people who were his relatives. The girl’s father had symptoms and also tested positive. Symptoms of bird flu in humans are fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches; pneumonia, among others.

According to Briand, “we are more prepared (than for COVID), but still not enough,” the agency reported. Reuters.

There is a history of other avian influenza viruses that have caused pandemics that have affected humanity. The origin of the 1918 pandemic could be an avian influenza A virus.

The strains that led to the pandemics in 1957 and 1968 were the result of a combination of low pathogenic human and avian influenza A virus genes, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More recently, the 2009 pandemic was the result of a combination of human, avian and swine influenza A virus genes, and – for CDC experts – “it is believed to have originated in pigs to be transmitted between the people”. .

Today, avian flu is a growing concern, and not just for public health reasons. There are also reasons economical and ecological at stake. If the new virus strain affects industrially produced birds, there are countries like Argentina, which could lose the “bird flu free” category and could close export markets, with economic losses for producers. .

Infection is a threat to the protection of biodiversity, especially for wild birds which are most at risk. Argentinian scientists Sergio Lambertucci and Pablo Plazaof the INIBIOMA Institute, which depends on Conicet and the National University of Comahue, with colleagues from Peru informed in the magazine Science that the virus could affect populations of Andean Condorwhich is a maximum symbol of American fauna: only 6,700 specimens remain.

What would have caused the spread of the new strain detected in 2020 around the world? According to OMSA, the factors that favor avian flu epidemics are globalization and world trade, the production and sale of poultry and the routes of migratory birds.

But there would also be factors specific to the current situation. in dialogue with GlobeLiveMediaJulián Ruiz-Saenz, one of the scientists who warned in the magazine Plos One in 2017 that more research was needed on bird flu in Latin America, he explained the possible reasons.

The researcher, who is a professor of veterinary medicine and zootechnics and a researcher at the University Cooperative University of Colombia, He commented that the circulating strain “is a new clade that has the ability to infect many more bird species than previous ones. This allows it to spread more easily through bird migration routes around the world, reaching Europe, North America and finally South America.

“If migratory birds in North America were infected, it was only a matter of time before the virus reached our region,” he said. Although the risk of transmission to humans is minimal, “the characteristics of this agent may allow it to achieve adapt to human populations. This would increase the risk of epidemics and even pandemics. For this reason, it is so essential to monitor the circulation of the virus in animals early and to reduce the risk of exposure and infection in humans,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jesús Javier Orejas Fernández, from the Directorate of Livestock, Agriculture and Agrifood Industries of Galicia, commented to GlobeLiveMedia that the viral strain has already been transmitted to various mammals. He was one of the leaders of the study published in the journal Eurosurveillance— who determined that bird flu had killed American mink on a farm in Spain.

“A rearrangement could occur between the avian virus and other mammalian viruses, and generate a new virus with the ability to be transmitted between mammals and with the pathogenic potential of the H5N1 avian subtype,” said Orejas Fernández.

In addition to mink, infections in mammals such as bears, wild foxes and skunks have recently been reported in Canada and the United States.

In Peru, more than 600 sea lions died. “The main, perhaps the only, route of infection was through contact with or consumption of sick birds. However, the large number of dead seals and in large groups calls for tension. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that there was contagion between individuals of the same wolf species,” he said. GlobeLiveMedia Dr. Lambertucci, who collaborated on the research in Peru, which was published on the BioRxiv platform, and is still awaiting peer review.

Much can be done to slow the spread of bird flu. The academic of the Origin of Life Laboratory of the Faculty of Sciences of National Autonomous University of Mexico, José Campillo Balderas, told GlobeLiveMedia“Each country should have epidemiological surveillance programs, put in place an approach that takes into account public health and animal health, and monitor the migratory routes of wild birds and the agricultural breeding grounds of domestic birds.”

In hatcheries – recommended the Mexican researcher – “the number of birds should be reduced”. Vaccines should also be developed to prevent infection. If we control the spread of the virus in birds and mammals, it can be controlled in humans.”

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