{"id":64712,"date":"2026-02-26T20:12:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T01:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/?p=64712"},"modified":"2026-02-26T20:13:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T01:13:44","slug":"h5n1-bird-flu-confirmed-in-california-elephant-seals-for-1st-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/h5n1-bird-flu-confirmed-in-california-elephant-seals-for-1st-time\/","title":{"rendered":"H5N1 confirmed in northern elephant seals in California"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Avian influenza H5N1 has been confirmed in northern elephant seal pups in California, the first known cases in marine mammals in the state and in this species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Thursday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucdavis.edu\/health\/news\/first-cases-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-northern-elephant-seals-confirmed-california\">UC Davis said<\/a> the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 after samples from seven sick and dead seals tested positive. The cases involve recently weaned pups at A\u00f1o Nuevo State Park in San Mateo County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers first observed multiple weanling pups dead on February 19 and 20. Other young seals showed tremors, seizures, weakness and respiratory problems, <a href=\"https:\/\/pandemicinsights.ucdavis.edu\/h5-marine-outbreak\">according<\/a> to the Institute for Pandemic Insights at UC Davis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A\u00f1o Nuevo hosts one of the largest mainland elephant seal colonies in the United States, with about 5,000 animals during the winter breeding season. Roughly 1,350 seals were on the beach when the outbreak began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is exceptionally rapid detection of an outbreak in free-ranging marine mammals,\u201d said Christine Johnson, who directs the Institute for Pandemic Insights at UC Davis\u2019 veterinary school. \u201cWe have most likely identified the very first cases here because of coordinated teams that have been on high alert with active surveillance for this disease for some time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roxanne Beltran, who leads UC Santa Cruz\u2019s northern elephant seal research program at A\u00f1o Nuevo, said her team had increased monitoring in recent years as H5N1 spread across North and South America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGiven the catastrophic impacts observed in related species, we were concerned about the possibility of the virus infecting northern elephant seals for the first time, so we ramped up monitoring to detect any early signs of abnormalities,\u201d Beltran said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>H5N1 has caused significant marine mammal die-offs elsewhere. The virus decimated southern elephant seal populations in Argentina and Chile. In the United States, outbreaks were reported in seals in Maine in 2022 and Washington state in 2023. Russian authorities have also reported infections in marine mammals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigators in previous U.S. outbreaks determined the virus likely spread from infected wild birds to seals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>California State Parks has closed public access to seal viewing areas at A\u00f1o Nuevo and canceled guided tours for the remainder of the season. Officials said the risk to the general public is low but advised people not to touch live or dead seals or allow pets near them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Avian influenza H5N1 has been confirmed in northern elephant seal pups in California, the first known cases in marine mammals in the state and in this species. On Thursday, UC Davis said the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 after samples from seven sick and dead seals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":64713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2817],"tags":[4274,1719,67,2061,4275,151],"class_list":["post-64712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-ano-nuevo-state-park-california","tag-bird-flu","tag-california","tag-h5n1-bird-flu","tag-san-mateo-county-california","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>H5N1 confirmed in northern elephant seals in California - BNO News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/h5n1-bird-flu-confirmed-in-california-elephant-seals-for-1st-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"H5N1 confirmed in northern elephant seals in California - BNO News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Avian influenza H5N1 has been confirmed in northern elephant seal pups in California, the first known cases in marine mammals in the state and in this species. On Thursday, UC Davis said the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 after samples from seven sick and dead seals [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/h5n1-bird-flu-confirmed-in-california-elephant-seals-for-1st-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BNO News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bnonews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-27T01:12:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-27T01:13:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/CaliforniaNorthernElephantSeals.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos Robles\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bnonews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bnonews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos Robles\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/h5n1-bird-flu-confirmed-in-california-elephant-seals-for-1st-time\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/h5n1-bird-flu-confirmed-in-california-elephant-seals-for-1st-time\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carlos Robles\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0a2ca734b9c5688c0e2d40fe6f33add1\"},\"headline\":\"H5N1 confirmed in northern elephant seals in California\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-27T01:12:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-27T01:13:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/h5n1-bird-flu-confirmed-in-california-elephant-seals-for-1st-time\/\"},\"wordCount\":392,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/h5n1-bird-flu-confirmed-in-california-elephant-seals-for-1st-time\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/CaliforniaNorthernElephantSeals.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"A\u00f1o Nuevo State Park (California)\",\"bird flu\",\"California\",\"H5N1 bird flu\",\"San Mateo County (California)\",\"United States\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Health\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/h5n1-bird-flu-confirmed-in-california-elephant-seals-for-1st-time\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/h5n1-bird-flu-confirmed-in-california-elephant-seals-for-1st-time\/\",\"name\":\"H5N1 confirmed in northern elephant seals in California - 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