Feds approve vaccine for imperiled California condors at risk of avian flu
Federal officials have approved an emergency vaccine to protect the critically endangered California condor from a deadly strain of avian flu that has spread through a population in northern Arizona and southern Utah.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture signed off Wednesday on the emergency use of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, vaccine for condors in an attempt to prevent additional deaths. U.S. Fish and Wildlife describes this strain of avian flu as highly contagious. A pilot study among vultures has already begun.
The service approached the Department of Agriculture about vaccination after a California condor was found dead in late March and then confirmed positive for HPAI at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories. Since then, 20 condors have died and 13 of those were confirmed to have HPAI.
HPAI can spread quickly through “bird-to-bird contact, environmental contamination with fecal material, and via exposed clothing, shoes and vehicles,” according to an April release on the deaths.
Several condors remain in monitored care at Liberty Wildlife in Phoenix, including a newly hatched chick whose egg was pulled from its contaminated nest before its mother died from the virus.
Biologists at Liberty Wildlife are working to get the birds in care healthy enough for a release back into the wild.
“The hope is that they will be able to go back into the wild,” said Stephanie Lamb, a veterinarian at Liberty Wildlife. “We want to get these birds through this and get them back out into the wild to live their lives the way they are meant to.”
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Condors' slow reproduction rate is a concern
The California condor has been protected as an endangered species since 1967. By 1982 fewer than 25 condors remained in the wild until an effort was launched to capture the remaining birds and start a captive breeding program. By the late 1980s the final bird was captured, making the species extinct in the wild.
The first condor was released into the wild in 1995, and the first wild-born condor was welcomed in 2003. In Arizona, the birds soar over the Vermilion Cliffs north of the Grand Canyon and are sometimes seen over the Colorado River and along the Canyon's rims.
The condor has a slow reproduction rate, typically laying only one egg a year, which has left biologists anxious about the effects this strain could have on the vulnerable population and its recovery.
The authorized vaccine is a killed, inactivated version of the virus, and was licensed by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Center for Veterinary Biologics in 2016. Since the vaccine has not previously been tested against this strain of the virus in these species, the first step in the vaccination program is a pilot safety study in North American black vultures, a similar species, to investigate if there are any adverse effects before giving the vaccine to the endangered condors.
Vaccine trials have already begun on 20 surrogate vultures in North Carolina.
“California condors are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, and are highly imperiled, with just over 300 in the wild,” said Joanna Gilkeson of U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. “HPAI is a newly recognized threat to the species with the recent condor deaths in Arizona. If proven safe, vaccinations may help the service and our partners address this threat and reduce the impact of HPAI to both the free-flying birds and those in captivity.”
This emergency use approval is limited to the California condors because of their endangered listing. USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists are continuing to examine vaccine options that could protect U.S. poultry from HPAI.
Conservation groups and wildlife protection organizations have been urging for a fast-tracked vaccine for highly pathogenic avian influenza as the largest outbreak of the virus in U.S. history continues to spread across the country and the world.
Avian flu spreading among chickens and other birds
The highly contagious and deadly strain has been circulating since last year. Avian flu typically does not extend past one season, but this strain has lasted longer, which has alarmed wildlife biologists.
Since early 2022 more than 49 million birds in 46 states have either died as a result of HPAI or have been killed due to exposure to infected birds.
“Factory farms have proven to be an ideal breeding ground for this highly contagious strain of avian flu that has already killed billions of chickens and is now rapidly infecting endangered California condors and other wild birds,” said Lori Ann Burd, the environmental health director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “In just a few weeks this dangerous disease has wiped out over 17 percent of the critically endangered California condors in Arizona and sickened a lot more.”
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The Center for Biological Diversity said the rapid approval and deployment of a vaccine is needed to curb this outbreak and protect the condor.
Vaccines have never been approved or used to control HPAI in the U.S. but there has been limited use of specific vaccines to control low pathogenic avian influenza. Implications for an LPAI outbreak are significantly different than that of an HPAI outbreak and the vaccines used in previous outbreaks would not be effective in combatting this current strain.
Jake Frederico covers environment issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send tips or questions to jake.frederico@arizonarepublic.com.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: USDA approves avian flu vaccine for imperiled California condors
