travelling-blogger

comments

A rise in the numbers of tourists visiting the Antarctic is increasing the chances of penguins catching deadly diseases.

With humans only having started to travel to the continent around 200 years ago, in the period 2013-14, more than 37,00 people are believed to have visited the area, in addition to a large number of researchers.

And with penguins in particular believed to have a weaker immune system due to their isolation from normal pathogens found in the rest of the world, tourism is proving a threat to numbers.

Scroll down for video 

A rise in the number of new diseases killing penguins is believed to correlate to the increase in tourists visiting Antarctica

Nearly 40,000 tourists visited the Antarctica in the year 2013-14, as well as thousands of researchers

Cute penguin tries to nibble on a GoPro in Antarctica (related)

Wray Grimaldi, from the University of Otago in Denuedin, New Zealand told the New Scientist: 'The effects of both a growing tourism industry and research presence will not be without consequences

'Penguins are highly susceptible to infectious diseases.'

A survey that  originated in 1947 discovered the birds had contracted diseases such as Salmonella, E. coli, West Nile virus and Avian pox virus infections.

The team at the New Zealand University reported in their journal Polar Biology that thousands of penguins' deaths can be attributed to catching foreign diseases. 

Tourists are warned to sanitise their footwear when they arrive in the Antarctica, but as the penguins' immune system is unable to identify foreign pathogens, they are at risk

Avian pox was discovered to have killed more than 400 gentoo penguins in 2006, and caused 60 per cent mortality rates throughout another outbreak in 2008.

Tourists are advised to sanitise their footwear when they visit Antarctica to help combat the chance to spreading disease.

Scientists say it is also possible many diseases could be spread to the flightless birds by other animals who migrate to the continent.

Norman Ratcliffe of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK, told the New Scientist: 'The tour companies are quite careful to make sure everyone cleans their boots before they go ashore, they don't allow any animal products to be taken ashore.