Toxic Threat: Is Environmental Pollution Behind The Bird Flu Pandemic?

Playback speed

1×

Subtitles

Share post

Share post at current time

Share from 0:00

0:00

/

0:44

Transcript

0:06

SPEAKER 1

A groundbreaking study conducted in 2022 found that exposure to the toxin mercury from environmental pollution had a drastic impact on bird flu spread and disease severity amongst ducks. Mercury-poisoned birds were more than five times more likely to test positive for the bird flu virus.

0:26

Mercury was disrupting the birds' immune systems, which made them susceptible to the viral infection. Is it viruses we have to fear? Or is it our toxic environment that's driving disease?

Toxic Threat: Is Environmental Pollution Behind The Bird Flu Pandemic?

Jun 10, 2024

Scientists have uncovered a disturbing link between mercury pollution and the bird flu.

In a shocking study of 749 ducks across 11 species in California, researchers found that mercury-poisoned birds were 5 TIMES more likely to have had the bird flu recently.

Mercury is a powerful immunosuppressant which weakened the bird's immune systems, allowing increased transmission of the virus and disease severity.

So, what's really driving this bird flu pandemic?

Toxins or Viruses?

Discussion about this video

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts

0:26

Mercury was disrupting the birds' immune systems, which made them susceptible to the viral infection. Is it viruses we have to fear? Or is it our toxic environment that's driving disease?