Paris Zoo penguins get annual bird flu vaccines to guard against a catastrophic outbreak. The zoo has decades of experience
PARIS: A curious seagull strolled nonchalantly through the penguin enclosure at a zoo in Paris.
It looked harmless enough but the seagull could pose an existential threat to the penguins with a devastating bird flu outbreak killing hundreds of millions of birds across the world over the last few years.
That is why 41 Humboldt penguins were queued up near their pool in the Paris Zoological Park on a cold December morning at the start of influenza season.
A zookeeper whispered some reassuring words to one called Cissou as a veterinarian injected him with his annual bird flu vaccine shot.
After getting his jab, Cissou waddled off back into his enclosure.
Around 10 zoo staff took the chance to weigh and measure the penguins, collecting feathers, taking blood samples, examining their feet and checking their microchips.
In a month, the young penguins born this year will get a booster shot.
The zoo, which is in Vincennes park in the east of the French capital, has never detected a case of bird flu.
The only birds to get a jab at the zoo are those that live outdoors, or in enclosures with mesh that could allow them contact with wild birds. These include hornbills, vultures, rheas and ostriches, marabou storks and cranes.
Though the practice remains rare across Europe, France has been vaccinating birds against avian influenza in zoos since 2006.
That was long before it became the first European country to vaccinate ducks in farms nationwide in 2023, using the same vaccine at a different dosage.
That extra two decades of experience has led to several scientific publications, Laidebeure said.
It also helped scientists learn how well the vaccine worked on different species — and showed that it was safe and effective.
“I think that helped reassure people” before it was rolled out on farms, Laidebeure said.- AFP
