The unrelenting global spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has now extended into polar bear populations at the planet’s farthest reaches after the first documented death of the vulnerable species from the virus late last year in northernmost Alaska. The case likely resulted from the bear scavenging infected bird carcasses as the outbreak circulates through Arctic ecosystems. Its discovery follows infections detected months earlier thousands of miles away in Antarctic fur seals and other marine life. Fears are especially acute regarding entry of HPAI into remote polar ecosystems inhabited by numerous wildlife found nowhere else on Earth – leaving them immunologically naive and vulnerable. The Carcasses tend to go unnoticed outside small coastal villages. But as birds disperse the virus to new turtle dove populations and other species, secondary spread to dependent predators and scavengers seems inevitable. The single tragic bear could presage greater calamities. An outbreak cascading through one million vulnerable penguins could cripple recovering food chains. And the disease has already surpassed early predictions of reaching Antarctica, highlighting how climate impacts may facilitate transmission.
