panzootic

The current bird flu panzootic — or a pandemic in animals — has spilled over to an unprecedented number of animals across the world since it began in 2020, killing off elephant seals, cougars, polar bears, and dozens of other mammalian species.

It is now considered a “panzootic,” meaning a pandemic in wild animals: Last month 3,500 sea lions succumbed to it in Peru, according to Peru’s national parks service.

Though this panzootic is heating up, it still has a ways to go before unfolding into a human pandemic.

The virus — known as H5N1 or colloquially, bird flu — has been causing significant problems over the past year, spawning a "panzootic," or a pandemic among animals.

Most of the once-mysterious slaughters are now attributed to the “Global Panzootic Lineage,” a lethal strain nicknamed BdGPL.