Almost 700 swans discovered lifeless at nature reserve as specialists examine chicken flu

A whole lot of swans have been discovered lifeless at a nature reserve within the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, environmental officers stated Tuesday. The character reserve relies round Lake Karakol, close to the shores of the Caspian Sea, and is dwelling to quite a lot of uncommon and endangered species.

“Between 21 December and eight January, a complete of 675 swan carcasses have been found on Lake Karakol,” the Kazakh ecology ministry instructed AFP.

The birds could have died from avian flu, the ministry stated, including that specialists had been dispatched to the positioning to analyze.

Lake Karakol was artificially fashioned within the Soviet period close to the positioning of a nuclear plant, and has been the main target of conservation efforts.

Activists have beforehand raised concern about environmental issues in western Kazakhstan, notably air and water air pollution.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev known as in 2022 for Lake Karakol to be preserved, describing it as a “distinctive reservoir.”

Avian flu that has impacted hundreds of thousands of poultry birds and hundreds of untamed birds has additionally killed a polar bear for the primary time ever recorded, officers introduced not too long ago. The contaminated polar bear died someday within the fall, and the reason for loss of life was confirmed to have been the avian flu on Dec. 6, based on Alaska’s Division of Environmental Well being.

“This specific avian flu outbreak is of world scope,” Clark instructed CBS Information. “It has affected many species of birds and mammals worldwide: that scope is unprecedented. Every of these interactions with a brand new host species creates novel circumstances for the virus, and in 2020 all of us realized what that may imply.”

The latest avian flu outbreak has brought about hassle worldwide. In its most up-to-date state of affairs report, revealed in October, the World Group for Animal Well being stated that greater than half 1,000,000 poultry birds died or have been culled globally in the latest three-week interval main as much as the report. In Argentina, 300 southern elephant seals died due to the virus.

Li Cohen contributed to this report.