The sounds of barking elephant seals are again in the air along the breeding grounds of Península Valdés, Argentina—but it’s quieter. Roughly a year after a massive outbreak of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza killed more than 17,000 elephant seals, including about 97% of their pups, scientists estimate that only about a third of the elephant seals normally expected here returned.
Since 2022, a new, highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 influenza or “bird flu” has spread worldwide. In the U.S. it has affected over 100 million birds and for the first time, spread into dairy cows and a small, but growing, number of people. At UC Davis, experts in One Health — an approach that considers the health of people, animals and the environment together — are on high alert.
Nothing but death
Dead silence met Marcela Uhart and her team when they arrived at the elephant seal colony at Punta Delgada, Patagonia on Oct. 10, 2023.
Dairy cows in California have a new requirement meeting them: a negative test for H5n1 or “bird flu.”
These tests are handled by the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System – the backbone of California's warning system that helps to protect the health of California's livestock and, thereby, the lives of Californians.
Vice Provost Dr. Jonna Mazet was awarded the K. F. Meyer/James H. Steele Gold-Headed Cane by the American Veterinary Epidemiology Society (AVES). The prestigious award dates to 1964 and recognizes career accomplishments and contributions to veterinary epidemiology, public health, and One Health.
Microplastics are a pathway for pathogens on land to reach the ocean, with likely consequences for human and wildlife health, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.
Understanding the interaction between people, animals, plants and their shared environment — collectively known as One Health — has never been so important.
Mange has decimated the population of wild vicuñas and guanacos in an Argentinian national park that was created to conserve them, according to a study from the Administration of National Parks in Argentina and the University of California, Davis.
Rhesus macaques naturally exposed to wildfire smoke early in pregnancy had an increased rate of miscarriage, according to new research from the California National Primate Research Center at UC Davis.
Exposure to Ebolaviruses may be more frequent and widespread than previously thought say UC Davis scientists who found antibodies to Ebola virus in people up to a year before the 2018 Ebola virus disease outbreak began in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC.
PREDICT will provide emergency support to other countries for outbreak response including technical support for early detection of SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, through a six-month extension from the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, effective April 1.
