(Montreal) Quebec researchers say bird flu has been detected in at least two species of seals, and they fear the virus is behind an unusually high number of dead seals found on Quebec shores this year .
Updated yesterday at 6:23 p.m.
The Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Response Network, a research group, reports that around 100 harbor seal carcasses have been found since January along the St. Lawrence River in eastern Quebec, nearly six times more than the annual average.
The Network reported on Wednesday that in June alone, the number of seal carcasses had reached 65. However, avian flu, a disease that has plagued wild bird populations across the country since the start of the year, ” was quickly suspected of playing a role in this increase in mortality “in seals, indicates the organization.
Stéphane Lair, professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Montreal, said on Wednesday that about fifteen of these harbor seals had been declared positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu. He also indicated that a first case had been detected last week in a gray seal, another species of this amphibious mammal.
Professor Lair says these seals most likely came into contact with infected eider duck carcasses when they came ashore to give birth in early summer.
“Some seals, including the gray seal, are known to feed on wild birds […], but not harbor seals, said Professor Lair in an interview on Wednesday. But they are curious, they will come and smell the carcasses. »
Jean-François Gosselin, a biologist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, says these are the first cases reported in Quebec of transmission of the virus from wild birds to marine mammals. The first cases of H5N1 flu are said to have arrived in North America at the end of winter, involving birds that migrated from Europe.
According to Mr. Gosselin, the number of dead seals reported so far probably underestimates the reality. “It is already difficult to count the number of seals alive […] the carcasses stranded or floating between the rocks, it is even more difficult,” said the biologist. He added that it was difficult to monitor all transmission, which most likely affects other species — terrestrial and marine.
MM. Gosselin and Lair both insisted that there was no threat of transmission to humans and that the seal population was not in danger.
“It’s normal with an exotic virus […] it is a new virus that is entering a new population that has never been infected, Professor Lair explained. The mortality rate will be much higher than if the virus were already circulating naturally. »
The biologist Gosselin also adds that “we must be careful of all predators or animals that could be in contact with wild birds”.
The two scientists recommended that people avoid approaching or touching animal carcasses and keep their pets, especially dogs, away.
This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta Exchanges and The Canadian Press for the news.