BNO Information not too long ago tweeted this footage from Al Jazeera, together with the outline: “At the very least 3,500 sea lions in Peru have not too long ago died of H5N1 chook flu, almost 5 instances as many as beforehand reported, the federal government says.” WARNING earlier than you watch: The video is horrific—it is very troublesome to look at these poor creatures struggling. BNO additionally tweeted an article that gives extra context. Within the article, BNO Information explains:

Almost 3,500 sea lions in Peru have not too long ago died of H5N1 avian influenza, 5 instances as many as beforehand reported, the federal government introduced Thursday amid rising concern concerning the virus. Tens of hundreds of birds have additionally died.

In keeping with an replace from the agriculture ministry, at the very least 3,487 South American sea lions have been discovered lifeless in seven pure areas since November. This represents roughly 3.3% of the overall inhabitants within the nation.

The numbers are considerably larger in comparison with mid-February, when 700 sea lions had been reported to have died.

“The excessive mortality noticed was worrisome; for example, as much as 100 lifeless people floating collectively within the sea – an unprecedented remark for this geographical area,” researchers mentioned in a research final month. “The medical signs of dying people had been primarily neurological, equivalent to tremors, convulsions and paralysis.”

The South American fur seal has additionally been affected, with 5 of those mammals having been discovered lifeless in latest weeks. Authorities have additionally reported the deaths of a dolphin and a lion.

Whereas it is not clear how the virus is spreading to the ocean lions, researchers say it is doable that mammal-to-mammal transmission is taking part in a job, and add that “This must be urgently investigated.” The article additionally sounds the alarm about the potential of eventual human-to-human transmission, which we’ve not seen but however might be on the horizon, given how shortly it has been spreading to growing numbers of different non-human mammals. Whereas there have been 135 people who’ve died from H5N1 since January 2003, all of those circumstances are thought to have been the results of direct transmission from human contact with contaminated birds. If we start to see human-to-human transmission, and if the excessive demise price we have seen thus far in human circumstances holds (WHO places that price presently at 56%), we’ll be in for a state of affairs that is nearly too dire to grasp. Human-to-human transmission would wreak havoc and trigger unfathomable quantities of demise and devastation. However even when that by no means occurs, let’s please not reduce the destruction that is already occurring for the birds and non-human animals we share this planet with—shedding so many hundreds of birds and non-human mammals throughout the planet is a horrible tragedy in and of itself.