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Federal officials have urgently approved an avian flu vaccine for use in the California Condor, an agency of the US Department of Agriculture. announced on Tuesday.
The move comes after a dozen endangered birds recently died from a virus known as H5N1. With a wingspan of nearly 10 feet, there are fewer than 600 California Condors worldwide. The emergency approval is “an attempt to prevent further deaths of these birds,” said the agency’s Office of Animal and Plant Health Inspections.
It’s not yet clear when the California condor will be vaccinated, but the effort will start with captive birds, said Dr. Carlos Sanchez, veterinarian director at the Oregon Zoo. The zoo has a condor breeding program and plans to vaccinate some birds. Condor will be closely monitored to ensure the vaccine is safe and effective. “But as you can imagine, we need to do all this quickly so we don’t lose any more birds,” he said.
Why it matters: Condors are at high risk.
The virus was first detected in a California Condor that was found dead in late March. Twenty more condors have since died, and four more are currently in rehab, federal agencies say. The virus was confirmed in 15 of them.
Dr Sanchez said condors appear to be “very susceptible” to the virus. “Once infected, mortality tends to be high,” he says.
The California condor population declined sharply in the 20th century. By the 1980s, fewer than 30 birds remained. In the decades since, captive breeding programs have helped the population recover. Dr Sanchez said this progress could disappear if the virus invades more condor populations. “We are talking about the possibility of a catastrophic collapse of a conservation project.”
Background: A new version of an old threat.
The H5N1 virus was first detected in China in 1996. Since then, various versions of the virus have circulated among wild birds and caused recurring outbreaks in poultry. A new version of the virus will arrive in North America at the end of his 2021. Since then, the virus has spread rapidly across the United States, causing the largest bird flu outbreak in US history and causing deaths. About 60 million domestic birds.
It’s also causing far more damage to wild birds than previous outbreaks.Detected in Over 6,700 wild birds While this number is certainly an underestimate, every state except Hawaii is responsible for mass bird mortality around the world.
It has also repeatedly infected mammals, has caused a small number of human infections, and has generally caused infections in people known to have had close contact with birds. Officials say the virus is best adapted to birds and remains a low threat to the general public. But scientists have long worried that the virus could evolve in a way that spreads easily between people.
What’s next: Authorities are considering broader bird vaccination campaigns.
This vaccine is licensed for emergency use only in the California Condor. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said the small existing California condor population allows it to closely monitor vaccination programs.
However, the scale and scope of the current epidemic have led authorities to consider large-scale poultry vaccination campaigns. USDA scientists are testing a number of potential poultry vaccines and say they could have some results this spring.
The country could see more animal outbreaks in the coming weeks as infected birds migrate north for the summer.
