Wildlife officials say antibodies found in early results of a new vaccine trial are expected to give endangered California condors at least partial protection from the deadliest strain of avian influenza in U.S. history.
The vaccine was administered this summer to condors bred in captivity at the Los Angeles Zoo, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and the Oregon Zoo. Authorities launched the study after the avian influenza deaths earlier this year of 21 free-flying condors in Arizona, part of a Southwest flock usually accounting for a third of the wild population.
Experts have spent the past 40 years trying to prevent the extinction of the iconic vulture with a 10-foot wingspan. The wild condor population today is fewer than 350 in flocks spanning from the Pacific Northwest to Baja California, Mexico. The outbreak avian flu outbreak threatens the endangered birds’ lives as well, as decades of conservation efforts, most notably at the Vermillion Cliffs in northern Arizona.
The California condor is the only bird in the U.S. that has been approved for the new emergency-use avian influenza vaccine. Authorities confirmed the flu’s presence earlier this month in commercial poultry flocks in Utah and South Dakota, heightening concerns ahead of the spring migratory season.