'Unprecedented outbreak' of bird flu reaches Puget Sound harbor seals

SEATTLE — They might be fun to look at, but experts want you to keep your distance from harbor seals in the Puget Sound.

This warning comes after a worldwide outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza jumped to local harbor seals.

“It's really an unprecedented outbreak,” said Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, a professor in the University of Washington schools of medicine and public health. “The number of countries involved, the number of different types of animals involved, both birds and mammals, is something we've absolutely never seen before.”

In September, NOAA Fisheries announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed three adult harbor seals in the Puget Sound tested positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 strain.

The seals were stranded on Marrowstone Island on Aug. 18 and 25. The findings confirmed initial testing by the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, which indicated the presence of H5N1 in these seals. It marked the first incidence of of H5N1 in marine mammals on the West Coast.

Rabinowitz said it's in line with what he’s seen in other parts of the world, including the East Coast and South America.

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He said the H5N1 virus family has, at times, been able to infect humans and cause severe disease, which is why he called this a potentially dangerous type of influenza.

Is there a risk for humans to contract the virus?

We just absolutely have to keep this on our radar as an important global phenomenon, even though at the moment the risk to humans, and certainly the risk to humans in Washington state, is very low,” Rabinowitz said. “Just as we thought about social distancing with COVID-19, I think the future is that as much as we love wildlife, having a certain amount of social distance from the wildlife and not having too much unprotected contact.

Rabinowitz said people should be careful of their pets and make sure there is no contact with sick or dead wildlife. He said in general, even when the virus jumps to mammals, it doesn’t continue to spread from mammal to mammal.

“It's more the direct jump from a bird to a mammal, which we think is what probably happened with these seals in Puget Sound as well,” Rabinowitz said.

Rabinowitz said when you see a sick, wild animal, there is always a potential risk to you if you go up and touch it or get too close to being infected. He said you should always use caution, keep away from sick animals, call animal control and find somebody who can deal with it with adequate protective equipment.