A strain of the deadly avian flu detected in Ano Nuevo State Park last month, with cases confirmed in California marine mammals for the first time ever, has been documented in another new county hundreds of miles south of the initial outbreak.
On Thursday, UC Davis’ Institute for Pandemic Insights reported a case of HPAI H5N1 was confirmed in a dead California sea lion found on a beach in San Luis Obispo. The animal was approximately one to two years old, and the third known sea lion to contract the virus since the start of the outbreak, with the other two individuals found in San Mateo County.
“Juvenile sea lions are known to forage along the central California coast traveling as far south as the primary sea lion breeding colonies on the Channel Islands,” the news release read. “Researchers are continuing to monitor marine mammal populations all along the coast.”…