{"id":451324,"date":"2026-05-20T14:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/451324\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T14:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:57:14","slug":"bird-flu-kills-polar-bear-and-a-walrus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/451324\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu kills polar bear and a walrus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norway\u2019s national veterinary institute has determined that both a young polar bear and a walrus found dead on Svalbard were victims of bird flu. It\u2019s the first time the virus has been confirmed in a polar bear.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The dead polar poar bear found on Svalbard was only around a year old. PHOTO: Ingebj\u00f8rg Nymo\/Veterin\u00e6rinstituttet<\/p>\n

Both the walrus, who was fully mature, and the polar bear were initially found dead earlier this month in Svalbard\u2019s Raudfjord by tour guides, according to an announcement from Norway\u2019s Veterin\u00e6rinstituttet on Tuesday. They alerted authorities, who determined that the strain of the virus had also been found earlier on the Arctic archipelago among seabirds in 2022, another walrus in 2024 and mountain foxes in 2025.<\/p>\n

The virus has also earlier been found among red foxes, otters and a badger on the mainland, all of them determined to have been infected by wild birds. A bird flu epidemic<\/a> in the Northern Norwegian counties of Finnmark and Troms killed killed thousands of seabirds in 2023.<\/p>\n

Now the virus is raising concern on Svalbard, which is under Norwegian control and often thought to be far away from sources of infection on the mainland. After the tour guides alerted authorities, the Norwegian Polar Institute contacted the state veterinarians. The guides had reported that they also observed two other polar bears limping and appearing to have problems with their hind legs, a possible sign of neurological trouble linked to a virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat raised fears of serious infectious disease, and two of us from the institute traveled to Svalbard to help local authorities with the testing of the dead animals,\u201d said Knut Madslien, who specializes in wild animal health. He said the use of helicopters helped them find the polar bear and walrus quickly.<\/p>\n

Madslien said they didn\u2019t see any other dead or sick polar bears from the air. Test results, though, confirmed the HPAI strain of bird flu in both the dead polar bear and the walrus. The dead animals were also tested for rabies, but results were negative.<\/p>\n

The results otherwise confirm what Ragnhild T\u00f8nnessen, bird flu coordinator at the veterinarian institute, called a \u201cdevelopment\u201d in which bird flu infection is rising among mammals in Europe. \u201cAt the same time, the virus is spreading to new areas including the Arctic, where it can have consequences for vulnerable species and ecosystems,\u201d T\u00f8nnessen said. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s important to maintain surveillance over the situation to understand the development and address the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mammals can be infected through direct contact with birds or other mammals already infected by the virus. Institute officials urged the public to report observations of dead or sick birds and animals to either police or the state food regulatory agency Mattilsynet. Symptoms of the virus can include limping, problems with an animal\u2019s neck or animals moving in circles.<\/p>\n

The virus can also be transmitted to humans, and the institute warned against any direct contact with dead animals.<\/p>\n

NewsinEnglish.no\/Nina Berglund<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norway\u2019s national veterinary institute has determined that both a young polar bear and a walrus found dead on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":["post-451324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}