Penquines face a poultry virus....

Penguins inhabiting the farthest reaches of Earth would seem to be safe from many of the ills that plague other wildlife. Recent research on these birds shows otherwise, however.

In the May 15 Nature, a group of Australian researchers reports finding signs in wild Antarctic penguins of a viral pathogen that has recently become widespread in the poultry industry in the Northern Hemisphere. The virus attacks the immune system of young chickens and can be fatal. The penguins examined did not appear to be sick, but the researchers found antibodies to the pathogen, known as infectious bursal disease virus, in blood samples of 65 percent of 52 emperor penguin chicks.

The penguins live in colonies close to the Mawson research base. In contrast, Adelie penguins living in a more remote colony showed no signs of the virus.

Veterinary biologist Heather Gardner of Australia's Environment, Sport, and Territories Department was prompted to screen for the virus and other avian pathogens after a massive number of Adelie chicks, more than 20,000, died three summers ago in the Mawson region. Although disease was ruled out as the cause in that episode, Gardner says "we needed to know more about disease in birds in Antarctica, particularly in light of ... increasing numbers of people visiting penguin colonies."

The researchers suggest that the hardy poultry virus may have been carried into Antarctica on food supplies and picked up by scavenging birds such as skuas, which transmitted it to the nearby penguin colony.

Emperor penguins in Antarctica have been exposed to a pathogen that kills young chickens,