17th January 2024 at 11:28am
The crew of Royal Navy patrol ship HMS Forth, which has resumed South Atlantic duties after nearly a year away, helped scientists confirm for the first time a highly infectious form of bird flu in Antarctic seals and birds.
The ship transported an expert virologist from the UK’s Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA) to the remote island chain of South Georgia after an unusual number of dead birds were noted in the autumn.
Access to the archipelago, which lies about 800 miles from the Falkland Islands and is barely habited by humans, is only possible by sea as there is no airstrip.
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HMS Forth ferried the APHA’s Dr Marco Falchieri to the islands and helped him take samples from dead wildlife, notably elephant seals and birds.
At labs back in the UK, the samples were found to prove that the disease – officially known as High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza or HPAI – has reached the fringe of Antarctica, probably carried there by migratory birds.
Although not prevalent yet, it is threatening one of the most fragile ecosystems on the planet.
The virus was found in elephant seals, fur seals, brown skuas, kelp gulls and Antarctic terns but has so far not infected the penguin population.
South Georgia is a British Overseas Territory and part of HMS Forth’s mission, as the Royal Navy’s permanent presence in the South Atlantic, is to regularly patrol the waters.
Forth’s remit is to protect the nation’s interests at sea, whether that means safeguarding fishing stocks in UK waters, or offering reassurance and protection in the Falklands.
The ship also has a flight deck and is armed with an array of weaponry, meaning she can support a range of operations from counter-piracy to anti-smuggling.