H5N1 flu is now killing birds on the continent of Antarctica

A highly pathogenic strain of bird flu is spreading south along the Antarctic Peninsula and could devastate populations of penguins and other seabirds

By Michael Le Page

11 March 2025

Adélie penguins in Antarctica are under threat from bird flu

Steve Bloom Images / Alamy Stock Photo

H5N1 bird flu has been found in dead birds on Antarctica for the first time. The deadly strain of bird flu is currently spreading south along the Antarctic Peninsula and could spread around the continent, with devastating consequences for wildlife such as penguins.

“It’s scary. Fortunately, it’s affecting just a few [birds],” says Juliana Vianna at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago. “I hope it stays that way, but avian flu in Chile and Peru was a disaster. It killed thousands and thousands of seabirds and sea lions.”

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Between November 2024 and January 2025, Vianna’s team surveyed 16 nesting sites of seabirds along the Antarctic Peninsula. The researchers found 35 dead skuas that had no signs of injury. Samples from 11 of the bodies were found to be positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus that has been spreading around the world in recent years.

Skuas scavenge on corpses and predate on other birds, so they are particularly likely to become infected by feeding on infected birds. The skuas in this area are hybrids between south polar and brown skuas.

So far there are no confirmed cases in other kinds of birds, but Vianna says she was told on 9 March that dead penguins have now been found, too. “We just talked to the Chilean Antarctic Institute,” she says. “They saw dead skuas and penguins.”