{"id":34893,"date":"2026-05-19T18:23:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34893"},"modified":"2026-05-19T18:23:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:23:53","slug":"bird-flu-found-in-polar-bear-in-europe-for-first-time-on-svalbard","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/bird-flu-found-in-polar-bear-in-europe-for-first-time-on-svalbard\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu found in polar bear in Europe for first time, on Svalbard \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bird flu has been detected in a dead polar bear in the Arctic Svalbard archipelago, \u200bthe first time the virus has been found \u200cin the species in Europe, a Norwegian government agency said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The Norwegian Veterinary Institute said in a statement \u200bit had also detected bird flu in a \u200bdead walrus on Svalbard, which is roughly halfway \u2060between the North Pole and mainland Europe.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The findings \u200bare part of a trend where highly pathogenic avian \u200binfluenza virus is increasingly being detected in mammals in Europe,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the same time, the virus has spread to new \u200bareas in recent years, including the Arctic, where \u200bit may have consequences for vulnerable populations and ecosystems.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The global spread \u200cof \u2060highly pathogenic avian influenza has alarmed governments and poultry producers after devastating flocks in recent years, disrupting supplies, driving up food prices and raising the risk \u200bof human \u200btransmission.<\/p>\n<p>The Norwegian \u2060institute said mammals can be infected with avian influenza through direct contact with birds \u200bor other mammals, and that it was \u200binvestigating \u2060whether the virus detected in the polar bear and walrus was specifically adapted to mammals.<\/p>\n<p>The detected virus is \u2060of \u200bthe subtype H5N5 which has \u200bin recent years been found in Svalbard in birds, Arctic foxes and \u200ba walrus.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32166,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-34893","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Norwegian Veterinary Institute said in a statement \u200bit had also detected bird flu in a \u200bdead walrus on Svalbard.","published_date":"","news_description":"The Norwegian Veterinary Institute said in a statement \u200bit had also detected bird flu in a \u200bdead walrus on Svalbard.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34894,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34893\/revisions\/34894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}