El Nino could cause an explosion of rabid seals around the world, animal health experts warn

This year’s El Nino weather event risks propelling an outbreak of rabid seals around the world, the world’s animal health body has warned. Countries in South America and Australasia are being urged to look for signs the deadly infectious disease has reached their waters, only two years after it was first confirmed in South Africa. The 2024 discovery of rabies in South Africa’s Cape fur seals was the first significant outbreak ever found in marine mammals and has been described as a “significant shift in rabies ecology”. More than 100 cases have been confirmed in South Africa and Namibia since then, raising fears that aggressive rabid seals could infect humans, pets and other wildlife. Changing patterns in fish stocks caused by the El Nino phenomenon now potentially risk widening the spread, as uninfected seal populations migrate for food and come into contact with rabid colleagues. Scientists believe warming sea temperatures off Antarctica could send seal populations northwards into Southern African waters, where they could be exposed to rabies. They could then return to their home waters, taking the virus with them and infecting other seal populations.