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Alberta poultry farmers brace for spring migration after last year’s surge in avian flu cases
UC Davis: Global Strategies to Protect Seals and Sea Lions from H5N1 (Avian Influenza)
Last Updated: Sunday, 22 March 2026 03:27 Published: Sunday, 22 March 2026 06:28
An adult male northern elephant seal attempts to mate with an adult female near the end of the breeding season.
A Birds-Eye View of the Impacts of H5N1 on Pinniped Conservation
March 22, 2026 – By Kat Kerlin – When the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus was discovered on a poultry farm in Asia in 1996, there was little indication that it would become so widespread and so destructive. Within 30 years, it reached every continental region except Oceania, infecting more than 400 million poultry, tens of thousands of elephant seals and sea lions, about 1,000 people and many other mammals and wild birds.
Related: Due to H5N1 Bird Flu the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Urges Public to Avoid Sick or Dead Marine Mammals and Birds Along California Coast
First Cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Northern Elephant Seals Confirmed in California at Año Nuevo State Park. First Detection of the Disease in a Marine Mammal.
Pinnipeds, which include seals and sea lions, have been hit unusually hard by the virus.
A study from the University of California, Davis, steps back to look at the overall impact of the virus on pinnipeds worldwide and offers recommendations for moving forward to monitor, characterize risk and build resilience in the affected species. It also suggests ways to help prevent the virus from reaching currently unaffected but vulnerable pinniped species, such as the endangered Hawaiian monk seal or Galapagos sea lion.
The paper is published in Philosophical Transactions B as part of a themed issue, “Managing Infectious Marine Diseases in Wild Populations.” It states that throughout Peru, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, highly pathogenic avian flu outbreaks have killed at least 36,000 South American sea lions, 17,400 southern elephant seals and 1,000 South American fur seals.
“There is a huge, unprecedented conservation risk,” said corresponding author Christine Johnson, director of the Institute for Pandemic Insights at the UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine. “Influenza is constantly changing, and that is a big problem now that it’s widely circulating in birds and marine mammals.”
Elephant seals: Canary in coal mine
Co-author Marcela Uhart, a veterinarian with the UC Davis Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center and its Latin America Program, witnessed and chronicled a massive 2023 outbreak of HPAI H5N1 in southern elephant seals in Argentina.
“Southern elephant seals were the canary in the coal mine alerting us to a bigger issue of pinnipeds throughout the entire world,” said Uhart. “We can do something better to be prepared the next time before it spreads to other species.”
In late February, northern elephant seals in California marked the first cases of HPAI H5N1 in a marine mammal in the state. The speedy detection was due to routine surveillance for H5N1 that was set up over a year prior by UC Davis and Año Nuevo Natural Reserve in collaboration with UC Santa Cruz’s long-term monitoring of the northern elephant seal colony at Año Nuevo State Park.
At the end of 2025, in response to a growing number of H5N1 cases in Bay Area seabirds, the team increased surveying efforts, walking the length of the reserve to document and sample any sick or dead bird or mammal throughout the elephant seal breeding season.
These efforts in advance of the outbreak allowed teams to quickly respond to changes in the seals’ health and collect samples for testing at UC Davis. Johnson called it an “exceptionally rapid detection of an outbreak in free-ranging marine mammals,” and an example of the kinds of preemptive efforts to detect and respond to outbreaks effectively.
Key recommendations
The paper’s key recommendations include:
- Fund and support long-term wildlife monitoring, and conduct surveillance both between and during outbreaks to detect trends early and respond swiftly before outbreaks spread.
- Build stronger communication and coordination networks among local, national and global researchers, agencies and academic partnerships to prepare for outbreaks. This includes working with public health practitioners and social scientists to engage and protect people at risk of disease exposure.
- Make wildlife health surveillance a routine part of conservation research and management activities.
- Improve technologies for non-invasive monitoring. For example, the UC Davis Institute for Pandemic Insights brings together engineers and wildlife health experts to deploy auditory and thermal imagery with satellite imagery to better understand key events or tipping points that may indicate an outbreak is likely.
- Pursue high-level policy changes and international agreements that address the root causes of avian influenza outbreaks.
- Address concurrent conservation threats. The authors emphasize that avian influenza is just one of many stressors affecting marine wildlife. Many species face challenges including habitat loss, declining food supply and climate change. Small populations are especially vulnerable.
“H5 avian influenza viruses are an emergent threat to seal and sea lion populations already facing numerous conservation pressures,” said first author Elizabeth Ashley, a graduate student researcher pursuing a dual degree in veterinary medicine and epidemiology at UC Davis. “Understanding how this virus spreads in coastal ecosystems is critical for protecting vulnerable marine wildlife.”
Additional authors include co-first author Ralph Vanstreels of UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine, Michelle Barbieri of NOAA Fisheries, Wendy Puryear of Tufts University, Frances Gulland of the Marine Mammal Commission, and Cara Field of The Marine Mammal Center.
The research was funded through a US National Science Foundation Center for Pandemic Insights award, National Marine Fisheries Service-Sea Grant fellowship, and California Sea Grant. Source: UC Davis
Wisconsin Faces Rising Bird Flu Threat As Spring Migration Begins
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Creating a Cage-Free Future
A federal court has delivered a decisive setback to efforts to dismantle California’s animal welfare laws, rejecting a U.S. Department of Justice challenge to the state’s series of cage-free policies for egg-laying hens. The ruling preliminarily stalls a Trump Administration offensive against the half-dozen states that forbid selling eggs from caged hens.
Nearly half of all eggs sold in the United States now come from hens in cage-free housing systems, up from just 5% 25 years ago. Animal Wellness Action and its sister organizations intervened in the case, as we’ve done with prior challenges to anti-gestation crate laws we’ve worked to pass. Coverage in the National Hog Farmer underscores the broader industry implications of the court’s decision, highlighting the continued legal and political battles over Proposition 12 and similar laws.
The battle over intensive confinement of farm animals is also front and center in Congress. The National Pork Producers Council and China’s Smithfield Foods are taking aim at state laws in California and Massachusetts that restrict the sale of pork from factory farms that confine the sows in gestation crates. The House Farm bill is expected to be taken up by the full U.S. House in April, and the committee-approved bill includes the Save Our Bacon Act to repeal the state’s landmark pig protection laws. We’ll need your active engagement to block this effort to preempt the state’s most consequential farm animal protection laws. Read Wayne Pacelle’s blog here.
FDA Modernization
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, under the leadership of visionary commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., is accelerating a long-overdue shift away from animal testing in drug development, advancing a more human-relevant and scientifically sound approach. New draft guidance recently issued encourages the use of cutting-edge methods—such as computational modeling and human cell-based systems—that can better predict how treatments will perform in people.
This move signals growing federal alignment around modernizing safety and efficacy testing and reducing reliance on outdated animal models that too often fail to translate to human outcomes. This shift has been triggered by our work to pass the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, which eliminated an 84-year-old animal-testing mandate, and set the stage for a revolution in drug screening. Read the story at Modernize Testing.
Protecting Bears
The deadline is April 9 — and we need your voice now. The federal government is considering a rollback that would allow bear baiting across millions of acres of national preserves in Alaska. This practice — luring bears with food so they can be shot at close range — is reckless, unsporting, and fundamentally at odds with the mission of the National Park Service. Go here NOW to post your comment.
Allowing baiting near or within parklands distorts wildlife behavior, increases bear-human conflicts, and undermines the integrity of protected areas. And baiting is only part of the threat: bears also face mounting pressure from poaching and illegal killing driven by black-market demand and weak enforcement.
Animal Wellness Action is working to confront both legal and illegal exploitation of bears and strengthen protections across the board. Take action now: read our blog here, submit your public comment here before the April 9 deadline, and urge lawmakers to support stronger federal protections for bears here.
Soaring, Not Suffering
Among dozens of other species, America’s iconic bald and golden eagles are suffering because hunters continue to disperse thousands of tons of lead ammunition in forests and fields all across America. When hunters use lead bullets, fragments scatter through carcasses and gut piles, which scavenging birds then consume — often with lethal consequences. More than 500 studies prove lead is deadly to wildlife and dangerous for consumers of wild-game meat. A landmark 2022 study in Science magazine, with dozens of state and federal wildlife managers as authors, shows that more than half of all eagles on the continent have acute levels of toxicity.
This week, a key committee in the Maryland House passed legislation to phase out lead ammunition, with the state on a potential path to become the second state to phase out the use of lead ammo in sport hunting. We also announced the filing of petitions with environmental protection agencies in New York and New Jersey to stop this mass poisoning of animals, people, and our landscapes and wetlands. Read about our petitions here and here.
There was a setback on this front, too. In what amounted to a nearly party-line vote, the U.S. House has passed H.R. 556, a bill designed to block federal land management agencies from restricting toxic lead ammunition, by a vote of 215 to 202. Nearly all House Republicans favored the bill, which is at the top of the NRA’s wish list, with all but seven Democrats opposing the effort to handcuff federal wildlife managers to stop the mass poisoning of wildlife. NJ Spotlight News examined the push to protect the continued use of lead bullets and fishing gear. Our focus now turns to the Senate, where we must stop the advance of this legislation. Please call your U.S. senators and use our Contact Congress platform to urge them to oppose H.R. 556.
MORE FROM ANIMAL WELLNESS ACTION
New Findings Raise Alarms About Care for America’s Military Working Dogs
Military working dogs are among the most highly trained and essential members of the U.S. armed forces — detecting explosives, securing installations, and saving the lives of American service members in combat zones around the world. But a growing body of evidence is raising serious concerns about how these animals are treated once they are off the front lines or in non-training status.
A new report, covered by regional and national media, including the DeSoto Tribune, details troubling conditions at U.S. military bases, where some dogs have been housed in aging, unsanitary kennels, exposed to extreme heat and mold, and deprived of adequate exercise and enrichment. A Pentagon Inspector General review found that many facilities were “aging and unsatisfactory,” with deficiencies that contributed to illness, stress behaviors, and even the deaths of multiple dogs in recent years.
In the new episode of the Animal Wellness Podcast, host Joseph Grove explores these findings in depth, joined by Dr. Thomas Pool, former commander of the U.S. Army Veterinary Command, and animal cruelty prosecutor Kate Chupka Schultz. Together, they examine the standards of care these animals require, where systemic breakdowns may be occurring, and what reforms are needed to ensure that military working dogs are treated not as expendable equipment, but as sentient partners in service. Listen to the episode here.
Animal Wellness Action 2025 Annual Report: A Year of Impact for Animals
In our newly released 2025 Annual Report, Animal Wellness Action details a year of strategic advocacy, legislative progress, and corporate engagement to advance a more humane economy. From driving federal policy reforms and challenging entrenched cruelty in agriculture and wildlife management to building coalitions that deliver measurable results, the report chronicles how focused advocacy is translating into real protections for animals.
The report highlights a growing national presence and influence in Washington and beyond, with campaigns designed not just to raise awareness, but to secure enforceable change — a model that continues to position Animal Wellness Action as a leading voice for animals in the political arena.
Explore the full report and see how your support is helping to drive lasting progress for animals. Read the report here.
Petition to ban fur hunting would effect fly fishing
Jakarta port authorities seize 3 tons of pangolin scales in Cambodia-bound container
Anggita Raissa
2 days ago
- A spot inspection of a 20-foot container by customs authorities at Indonesia’s largest port in late February uncovered more than $10 million in pangolin scales.
- There are eight species of the herbivorous pangolin, all categorized as threatened due to habitat loss and poaching, which is largely to supply raw material for Chinese traditional medicine, despite the total absence of any scientific proof of medicinal benefit.
- Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry and the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, Indonesia’s premier forestry faculty, estimate that every kilogram of pangolin scales requires the death of up to five pangolins.
- Separately, a police officer convicted last year over a scheme to trade 1.2 metric tons of pangolin scales stolen from a police evidence room had his nine-year sentence reduced to seven on appeal.
JAKARTA — Customs inspectors at the Indonesian capital’s main port uncovered more than 3 metric tons of pangolin scales in a shipping container bound for Cambodia in late February, in one of the largest seizures of the critically endangered mammal in years.
“We are committed to tightening export controls and taking firm action against any violations that threaten wildlife sustainability and harm the state,” Adhang Noegroho Adhi, the head of the Customs and Excise office at Tanjung Priok Port, said in a statement announcing the investigation in March.
Pangolins are the only mammals covered head to toe in scales. This armor offers protection in the wild, but makes pangolins easy prey in a global wildlife trade worth up to $23 billion annually.
The mammal’s scales, which are made from the same protein as human hair and nails, are prized by traditional healers in China and parts of Southeast Asia, despite the scales possessing no scientifically proven medicinal benefits.
On Feb. 18, officials became suspicious of a 20-foot shipping container after reviewing documentation provided by the exporter, PT TSR. According to the consignment document, the container held only sea cucumbers and instant noodles.
However, a scan of the container showed three separate storage areas, raising suspicions of unreported goods inside. Officials then began an inspection of the crate.
Inside, they found 99 boxes containing dried pangolin scales, weighing a total of 3,053 kilograms (6,731 pounds). The customs office valued the consignment at 183 billion rupiah ($10.7 million).
Authorities had made no arrests at the time of writing.
“We are still investigating in order to identify the parties involved,” Niko Budhi Darma, a senior customs official, said on March 10.
Shahnaz Dinda, coordinator of wildlife nonprofit Garda Animalia, said the operation last month in Tanjung Priok was one of the largest seizures in recent years. In 2019, customs officers in neighboring Singapore seized 12.9 metric tons of pangolin scales from West Africa, valued at around $40 million.
“This shows that the illegal hunting and trade of pangolins in Indonesia is still taking place on a large scale,” Shahnaz told Mongabay Indonesia.
Large scale crime
All eight known species of pangolin are listed as threatened on the IUCN Red List. They’re also listed in Appendix I of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, which bans all international trade in the animals.
Researchers from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, a prominent university just outside Jakarta, and Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry estimate each kilogram of pangolin scales represents as many as five dead animals. The seizure of more than 3 metric tons implies perhaps 15,000 pangolins were slaughtered.
In Indonesia, pangolins are protected under a 2018 list of protected species, and a 1990 conservation law.
Garda Animalia’s Shahnaz pointed to previous discoveries where pangolin scales were disguised or not declared in shipping consignments.
Customs authorities face significant challenges in uncovering wildlife crimes at ports, Shahnaz added, particularly with regard to inert goods like pangolin scales.
“There was once a case where pangolin scales were disguised as raw crackers, because on first look they appear quite similar,” Shahnaz said.
Civil society researchers have called for increased efforts to crack down on the illegal supply chain, from the hunters of the critically endangered pangolins up to the organized criminals running the trade.
“In addition, we urge that all confiscated pangolin scales be destroyed in a transparent manner to prevent potential misuse,” Annisa Rahmawati at environmental group Geopix told Mongabay on March 7.
In a separate case, a police officer convicted last year over a scheme to trade 1.2 metric tons of pangolin scales stolen from a police evidence room had his sentence reduced on appeal in late February. The North Sumatra High Court lowered Alfi Hariadi Siregar’s term to seven years from nine previously imposed by the Kisaran District Court.
Alfi was tried separately to two soldiers, M. Yusuf and Rahmadi Syaputra, who both received only a one-year custodial sentence for their part in the conspiracy after their conviction by a military court.
Vania Erlangga, legal division lead at Garda Animalia, said the men’s crimes should have been treated differently to offenses committed by civilians, and that the soldiers should have stood trial in a civilian court.
“The involvement of state officials in environmental crimes should be an aggravating factor in all stages of the legal process,” Vania said.
Banner image: Officers display pangolin scales intended for smuggling into Cambodia. Image by Tanjung Priok Customs Public Relations.
This story was first published here in Indonesian on March 15, 2026. Additional reporting by Ayat S. Karokaro in North Sumatra.
Exposing the Big Game 