Avian flu infecting African penguins

JOHANNESBURG - Almost 30 penguins have died from Avian flu in the Boulders Beach colony in less than six weeks.

The virus was detected in the country in May last year and has affected a range of sea birds.

READ: Russia detects first case of H5N8 avian flu in humans

The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds says that there is no cure or vaccine.

The situation is being closely monitored.

READ: Avian flu detected in seabird species

"The numbers that we are seeing now is just the tip of that iceberg, continuation of the disease and we're hoping it's not going to get worse," said Dr David Gordon.

"It is deadly to any of the birds that start getting symptoms, they die within the first 24 hours. And so all that we can do to protect the wild birds is to reduce the number of sick individuals in the colony by removing those from the environment, removing the dead bodies and patrolling to see where we can reduce that virus load in the wild and then to prevent people from being part of that transmission process and reducing interaction between people and the birds."