Peru: bird flu could have killed up to 3,500 sea lions

An epidemic of bird flu, responsible for the death of tens of thousands of birds, could have killed up to 3,500 sea lions in Peru, according to the environmental authority which lists the decimated specimens.

Face masks and biosafety suits, biologists took nasal and oral swabs on Friday from the corpses of sea lions stranded on the beach in the Paracas nature reserve, some 270 km south of Lima.

These members of the National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State (Sernanp) inserted long swabs into the nostril of the still recent corpse of this maned sea lion - Otaria flavescens, also called South American sea lion -, to confirm the death by the H5N1 flu.

63,000 seabirds dead from bird flu

"The Sernanp is identifying the sea lions affected by avian flu and is continuing its monitoring and control plan for protected natural areas

," the agency said in a statement, which recorded 3,487 dead maned sea lions in seven natural areas on the Pacific coast. .

According to statistics from the authority that depends on the Ministry of the Environment, these deaths represent just over 3% of the 105,000 sea lions recorded on Peruvian territory.

Some 63,000 seabirds were reported dead from bird flu in Peru between November 2022 and March this year.

The Sernanp urged people to

.

Avian flu is a disease that has no cure or treatment and causes high mortality in wild and domestic birds, such as ducks, hens, chickens and turkeys.

In December, health authorities slaughtered some 37,000 poultry at a breeding farm.

According to Sernanp, in addition to Peru, the bird flu virus has been detected in Bolivia, Uruguay and Argentina.

Probable cases have just been reported in northern Chile.