Global Strategies to Protect Seals and Sea Lions from Avian Influenza

Katherine E Kerlin — March 19, 2026 - 9:02am

When the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus was discovered on a poultry farm in Asia in 1996, there was little indication that it would become so widespread and so destructive. Within 30 years, it reached every continental region except Oceania, infecting more than 400 million poultry, tens of thousands of elephant seals and sea lions, about 1,000 people and many other mammals and wild birds.

Pinnipeds, which include seals and sea lions, have been hit unusually hard by the virus.

Sea lions exposed to algal toxin show impaired spatial memory

IET WebDev — December 14, 2015 - 11:30am

Brain scans and behavioral tests of California sea lions that stranded on shore show how an algal toxin disrupts brain networks, leading to deficits in spatial memory, according to a study to be published Dec. 18 in Science. The new findings by scientists at UC Santa Cruz, �鶹��ý and the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California, suggest that chronic exposure to the toxin domoic acid, produced by naturally occurring marine algae, affects sea lions' ability to navigate in their ocean habitat and survive in the wild.

Marine Mammal Content

Global Strategies to Protect Seals and Sea Lions from Avian Influenza

Sea lions exposed to algal toxin show impaired spatial memory