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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Phoebe Weston

Avian flu may have killed millions of birds globally as outbreak ravages South America

A pelican thought to be stricken with bird flu on a beach in Lima, Peru, in December 2022.
A pelican thought to be stricken with bird flu on a beach in Lima, Peru. Photograph: Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images

Millions of wild birds may have died from bird flu globally in the latest outbreak, researchers have said, as the viral disease ravages South America, with 200,000 deaths recorded in Peru alone.

The highly infectious variant of H5N1, which gained momentum in the winter of 2021, caused Europe’s worst bird flu outbreak before spreading globally. The disease reached South America in November 2022, and has now been reported on every continent except Oceania and Antarctica.

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