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Norway penguins get vaccinated too vs bird flu

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/afp/03/09/gentoo-penguins.jpg"/><figcaption>Twelve Gentoo penguins stroll along a 200 meters snow-covered path in the Otaru Aquarium in Otaru, Hokkaido prefecture on January 14, 2021. <em>Agence France-Presse</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>OSLO, Norway - They have been living under strict confinement measures for months, but soon the second shot of a life-saving vaccine will let them go outside and get back to their normal lives.</p><p>While it sounds like a familiar story, in this case their normal lives involve sliding about on their bellies, frolicking in icy water and catching fish in their mouths.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/travel/destination/03/12/20/in-this-antarctic-trip-you-can-jump-into-the-icy-waters-and-live-to-boast-about-it">In this Antarctic trip, you can jump into the icy waters and live to boast about it</a></li></ul><p>Twenty-nine gentoo penguins at Norway&#x27;s Bergen Aquarium have had a tarp stretched over their pen since early December after cases of a highly infectious bird flu strain, H5N8, were detected in the country.</p><p>&quot;Because of this, the Food Health Authority introduced a curfew: all birds in captivity must be kept under a roof,&quot; aquarium director Aslak Sverdrup told AFP on Thursday. </p><p>But the end is in sight, with the arrival of bird flu vaccine doses.</p><p>The oldest and most fragile had their first shot on Wednesday, followed by the younger penguins on Thursday, the aquarium said.</p><p>Among the freshly immunized is &quot;Erna&quot;, named for Prime Minister Erna Solberg who once had a summer job at the aquarium, a tourist attraction in the western city where she was born.</p><p>Once the second vaccine dose has been administered in a month&#x27;s time, the birds will be able to see the sky again.</p><p>&quot;The fact that penguins are being vaccinated now is pure coincidence, totally independent of the coronavirus, but it shows that vaccines are important, even more so today,&quot; Sverdrup said.</p><p>In the wild, gentoo penguins live on the other side of the Earth, in Antarctica.</p><p>None at the Bergen Aquarium caught the flu, and while the disease can be devastating for birds, transmission to humans is rare.</p><p>phy/map/jll/wai/dl</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o3CclY5OZ3s?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><div> </div>

<p>Twenty-nine gentoo penguins at Norway's Bergen Aquarium have had a tarp stretched over their pen since early December after cases of a highly infectious bird flu strain, H5N8, were detected in the country.<br /> </p>

Twenty-nine gentoo penguins at Norway's Bergen Aquarium have had a tarp stretched over their pen since early December after cases of a highly infectious bird flu strain, H5N8, were detected in the country.