A polar bear has died from bird flu for the first time in Alaska. Do you like Michael Jordan, BMW and have money to spare? Then this car is your deal

Experts have found the bird flu virus in a dead polar bear for the first time. This is a further threat to the already endangered Arctic species, the New York Times reported on Wednesday (local time), based on findings from Alaska’s Department of Environmental Conservation in December.

The bear was discovered in northern Alaska, near Utqiagvik. It remains unclear how many total bears are infected with the deadly virus.

The bear shows how widespread the virus is now. “The number of reported infections in mammals continues to increase,” said Bob Gerlach, Alaska’s state veterinarian, according to the New York Times.

The polar bear could have become infected after eating a dead or sick bird, Gerlach said. According to the New York Times report, infections have already been discovered in Alaska in a brown bear, an American black bear and several red foxes.

Four major outbreaks after 2006

According to a study, there were a total of four major outbreaks of the pathogen from the H5 virus group after 2006. The ongoing outbreak is caused by a variant of the bird flu subtype H5N1. It led to the deaths of countless seabirds – as well as mammals – in the Northern Hemisphere, southern Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and South America.

Since the end of last year, thousands of dead sea animals have been found on the Pacific coast, first in Peru and later also in Chile – such as pelicans, penguins, sea otters, seals and marine mammals.

According to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), cases of infected birds have already been identified in Antarctica. “Bird flu could cause a first-degree environmental disaster in Antarctica,” marine biologist Ralf Sonntag of the environmental protection group Pro Wildlife said of the evidence in October. (sda/dpa)