The Southern Hemisphere Black Swans, (Cygnus atratus), are genetically distinct from the Mute Swans, (Cygnus olor), although they are closely related. The Mutes seem to have some resistance to bird flu; not all will succumb and die.
Studies by scientists from Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, Japan, USA and UK have found that the Black Swan’s genetic legacy does not include the same ability to resist bird flu as effectively as its northern ancestors.
As bird flu continues to move, we see the worrying prospect of it reaching these isolated populations. The geographical spread is widening. In the Americas, it occurs from Alaska to Newfoundland, and from Greenland to Southern Chile. The Highly Pathogenic H5N1 strain is extremely contagious amongst birds and has been causing widespread deaths of seabirds in the northern hemisphere, southern Africa, and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. There’s a high risk that H5N1 will arrive in the Southern Ocean either this, or the 2023/24 austral summer. Once in the area, HPAI could be transmitted by other bird species, and potentially by seals. This is particularly bad news for Black Swans.
If the disease finds its way to Australasia, do we face the prospect of losing the Black Swan entirely? Do the birds in aviculture represent an ark population in an ever-rising sea of trouble?
https://theconversation.com/australias-iconic-black-swans…
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