The San Francisco Bay is also a “significant hotspot for mercury contamination in North America … largely from historical gold mining, where mercury was part of that process”, she told AFP.
The ducks however tested negative to the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu strain that has been detected in many parts of the world.
MORE BIRD FLU LIKELY
Teitelbaum said that bird flu outbreaks in the United States had slowed down during the summer “because many of the wild birds are up on their breeding grounds” farther north.
But “as they’re starting to come back down, we’re probably going to see a lot more activity”, she warned.
The spread comes as researchers increasingly sound the alarm that climate change, deforestation, livestock farming and other human-induced factors raise the likelihood of viruses crossing over from animals to humans.
Teitelbaum said that “there are just so many ways in which humans have historically altered and are continuing to alter the natural environment”.
How pollution and contamination affect the risk of diseases spreading is “just another link that we need to add in to our more holistic view of what’s going on in the world”, she said.
Daniel Becker, a biologist at the University of Oklahoma not involved in the research, hailed the “impressive” study.
“There is surprisingly little work looking at contaminant concentrations in wildlife and their relationship to infectious disease,” especially for viruses that can cross over to humans like bird flu, he said.
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