Posted on 03/02/2023 9:04:30 PM PST by Golden Eagle
Researchers fear the historic spread of a highly pathogenic, bird-adapted strain of influenza could jeopardize years of conservation success with the bald eagle.
Avian influenza, also known as H5N1, has killed a high number of bald eagles along the southeastern U.S. coast since January 2022, new research published in Nature’s Scientific Reports from the University of Georgia shows.
H5N1, which was introduced to eastern North America from Europe in December 2021, has been confirmed as the cause of death for at least 136 bald eagles collected from 24 states since January 2022.
Some of the eagles were viewed while still alive and exhibited several symptoms, including distress, head shaking, ataxia, inability to fly, paralysis and/or lethargy, while infection often resulted in multi-organ necrosis and brain inflammation.
Observations from Florida, Georgia and South Carolina determined that outbreaks often coincided with the bald eagle nesting season, when the birds construct nests near bodies of water containing fish and waterfowl.
Researchers believe bald eagles likely became infected by consuming infected waterfowl, specifically lesser scaup, one of the most abundant waterfowl species in the region that also suffered high numbers of mortalities from the virus during eagle breeding season.
The southeastern coast is particularly important because it contains large and productive populations of breeding eagles that contribute to the viability of the species within the larger Atlantic Flyway.
(Excerpt) Read more at axios.com ...
All of a sudden they care about eagles again? Put them in little masks.
We worked so hard to bring them back; and now the windmills and disease might endanger them again...
Ain’t ‘science’ great...
[[Bald eagles hit hard by bird flu outbreak]]
So that is what they are calling windmills these days? Bird Flu?
i know, we just got them back in our area a few years ago- great seeing htem again- but the enviroweenies wanna create all kinds of windmills which will kill em all again
It will all come out in the wash, as my ol’ Granny used to say.
Shut the lab door. Will anyone ever be held responsible for decades of gain of function.
When Science is politically driven, it’s not Science anymore.
This has been true from the beginning of Man’s exploration into the natural world. Real Science has always suffered from politics.
This is why you must all be fully vaccinated. If not, eagles will DIE
Yea right and SloJoe got 81 million votes and don’t forget to wear a mask and take your jab. I will get right on that sometime in the distant future maybe but more likely maybe NOT!
No reason to believe the “researcher” crisis horse manure ever again.
Maybe. But, even without regard to that - The way it was explained in NBC class, migratory birds are a “repository” for viruses. A very large one.
And - they don’t respect borders or political boundaries, they fly all over the world. Now there are human viruses. And there are other viruses that ordinarily affect only hogs, say. They all circulate within their species.
But - in many areas of the world, livestock including cattle, hogs, and poultry live in close contact with humans. In some cases they actually live in people’s houses. And all these viruses constantly mutate. Once in a while - they “jump” species, they mutate into a new form that is suddenly transmittable to humans.
That is is brand new virus, one that our immune system has no defense. This is bad, because it will cause a lot of people to die. But there is no effective way to stop this over the long term, because of the huge numbers of birds, livestock, wild critters all over the world.
What “Gain of Function” seeks to do, my understanding is it isn’t as high-tech as it might be portrayed in the movies. What they do, is purposefully infect 20 critters in a cage, say. Then they expose a different 20 critters in a cage from the virus from the other cage. They repeat this over and over and over, back and forth, back and forth, in the hopes of speeding up natural mutation. Kind of an accelerated evolution, or encouraging mutation anyway.
I’m not smart enough to know what they are trying to do, the claim is they want to do this in order to study these viruses, to protect us. Other people say it looks a lot more like they are trying to “protect” us from something that would have never been a problem if they hadn’t cooked it up in the first place.
Survival of the fittest. Have at it eagles.
There is a webcam featuring a nesting pair of bald eaglee in southwest Florida. The female eagle has disappeared. Perhaps the avian flu?
It is clear it came from the wet lands. There is no evidence of being created in a lab.
You mean Harriet on the SWFL Eagle cam? Don’t know. Maybe got hit by a car, killed by another raptor, windmill, disease. something. I check in almost every day. The babies seem to be doing alright so far. The dad is doing a good job by himself. Just sad about Harriet.
The virus…..Was it dropped from a balloon??
????? Based on what? Your opinion? Or actual research?
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