I’ve been catching up on Pheasant rearing techniques now that the Pheasant shooting season has ended. There are four Pheasant-rearing facilities which are under Defra special measures in Lancashire at the moment, at three of which H5N8 bird flu has been detected. Defra keep using this phrase ‘There are links between them that pose a high risk of spread of this very infectious virus’ which could mean many things but sounds more like an issue of movements of birds, or food, or people rather than wild birds. But Defra is pretty cryptic about all these matters.
The wording of the Defra news releases on H5N8 in these premises in Lancashire do not talk of large numbers of birds dying from bird flu – only of large numbers of birds being culled. Two of the premises have had birds culled before H5N8 has been detected (in the first of these H5N8 was detected after the cull and perhaps that might happen in the other premises) which again suggests that Pheasants don’t keel over as soon as they encounter H5N8. If Pheasants are, like many wild birds, resistant to H5N8, in the sense that it makes them ill, perhaps increases their mortality a bit, then this creates a big headache for Defra and for poultry keepers. How many Pheasants are walking around the countryside with H5N8? How many will encounter poultry farms? I wonder?
Pheasants are a non-native species, released into the countryside purely for game shooting. About 40 million Pheasants are released into our countryside every year, making them (by far) the UK’s most numerous so-called wild bird. 5 million Pheasant poults are imported into the UK each year. If no Pheasants were released into the countryside for five years I wonder how many we would see – not many I guess.
Some Pheasants survive in the wild through the year. Some are shot. Some are released into the countryside. Some are ‘caught up’ at this time of year and taken back into captivity for captive breeding to provide some of next year’s released birds (see here and here). The Pheasant is: very numerous, almost ubiquitous in the UK, common on farmland and is likely to mix with farmed poultry and wild birds, is kept in high densities in captivity, sometimes in facilities which breed ducks and other poultry, and is moved around the country by man and lobbed out into the countryside and then rounded up and brought back into captivity. Oh yes, and it enters the human food chain too, by the way. And it is dumped in middens and in plastic bags in hedgerows too. Quite a special bird – and an epidemiologist’s nightmare!
Given all this, it is surprising that Defra only issued advice on gamebirds over a month after the first cases of H5N8 in the UK. It is to be hoped that Defra has a full surveillance scheme for Pheasants which involves sampling the 25 million readily available shot birds for presence of H5N8 (although they haven’t said that they do – in fact they haven’t said that they have tested a single ‘wild’ Pheasant for H5N8). Under other circumstances, Defra vets are always banging on about wildlife reservoirs for diseases so they must be extremely concerned about the potential ‘wildlife’ reservoir of H5N8 provided by Britain’s most numerous ‘wild’ bird, the Pheasant.
The first H5N8 case has been detected in Northern Ireland – a Whooper Swan in County Derry.
There was one more case of H5N8 reported by Defra – a Greylag in Lancashire.
Previous blogs on bird flu this winter:
Bird flu update 1 February
Bird flu outbreak in Pheasant farm in Lancashire 24 January
Bird flu update 21 January
Another bird flu outbreak in another turkey farm in Lincolnshire 17 January
Bird flu update 16 January
Bird flu – another update 10 January
Bird flu case was at Slimbridge 8 January
Bird flu update 7 January
More bird flu cases in wild birds 3 January
Bird flu 29 December
Bird flu panic 8 December
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Driven together then dispersed, driven together then dispersed, driven together, then dispersed…. so there is no way that would aid the spread of an infection….you see that they are a gentleman’s bird and they just wouldn’t do that sort of thing.
What could go wrong?
Over the last two Saturdays gunmen have been freely walking the fields, just 6 miles as the pheasant flies from the Pilling outbreak, driving and then shooting birds over the fields towards the village where I live. Surely dispersing pheasants, which may or may not be infected in this way across our countryside, should be stopped if DEFRA is planning to bring this disease under control any time soon?
DEFRA will find another member of our wildlife is the cause of the spread . this morning news said. DEFRA have closed down many of the lab s where they check of diseases in livestock and wildlife.
At least someone is documenting the mindnumbing hypocrisy of DEFRA (to some extent), when it comes to the application of “science”/knowledge, with regards to balancing these with commercial interests. A written record might prove quite useful in the future when it comes to enquiries etc about the incompetence of the current government.
DEFRA should really be asked to explain WHY…. when keepers are supposed to be keeping birds inside or in pens if possible…its still ok to chase those poor birds all over the place? One minute they are walking through a flock of geese, the next the dogs are hounding them back into cover with hundreds of other birds heading for a near death experience.
How on earth is this acceptable during a declared national crisis?
Tom Heap covered the bird flu outbreak on Countryfile this evening. It would be interesting to get your take on what was included, what was left out and the framing by the BBC on this issue, as they tend to be DEFRAs little helper when required.
It’s certainly worrying Mark. Are you suggesting anywhere where birds congregate and then disperse is a possible hotspot for the spread of bird flu?
If so, would you advocate that we all remove bird feeders from our gardens?
As I run a small but busy wildlife area and have a large number of bird feeding points, which are frequently visited during the winter months, is there a similar danger here…and of course at bird sanctuaries like Slimbridge which is close by, which I notice was used last week for a seminar on wetland birds ( Was this too potential irresponsible?)
Willow – no I didn’t say that. Although we do know that feeder hygiene is very important to lessen the spread of other avian diseases.
Defra doesn’t seem to have moved on much in the last decade from regarding ‘wild birds’ as an important source of bird flu. Ideally we would know a lot more. How do we learn more? By doing some sampling and testing – and having some ecological nous about the most likely modes of transfer.
Mark,
You’re right you don’t actually say anything..apart that is to imply a possible link between excessive numbers of reared game birds and Avian Flu, which is a pretty big leap of the imagination.
As game birds are raised in pretty well sterile conditions indoors, under the watchful eye of the game rearer where their health is under constant scrutiny for infections etc, one must imagine that any until released into their eventual wooded environment via pens any exposure to Avian Flu is extremely unlikely. If this is the case, isn’t it more likely that Avian Flu would be spread via the wild bird population?
As I allude to, it is nearly impossible to manage Avian Flu in the wild bird populations. If this wasn’t the case then not only would game bird rearing be under the same scrutiny as all poultry farms. Which brings me to my next point.
If we believe the loose figure of 40 million game birds bred in the UK, of which as you previously state 5 million are imported in from Europe, this is a drop in the ocean when compared to the poultry industry per se.
Less you forget the governments figures for that industry give the following figures for the annual numbers of poultry bred in the UK.
875 million Chickens
17 Million Turkeys
16 million Duck
250,000 Geese.
All of this number are liable to spread Avian Flu, in fact previous outbreaks have emanated from domestic poultry farms and NOT game rearing establishments, which h only make up less than 4% of the total number of poultry reared.
All in all I think you’d agree, there is far more risk of the spread of Avian Flu from unmonitored, untested native and migrating wild birds and wildfowl than there is from reared game birds.
Willow – Wild birds are tested in a rather inadequate way and are shown to carry H5N8 though we don’t know much about that. Domestic poultry seem to be very susceptible to H5N8 and die offs will be noticed by their owners. Whereas Pheasants are unique in moving from one state (captive in high densities) to another (running around ‘wild’ and being chased around the countryside by game shooters) and are then caught up and taken back into captivity. How many Pheasants have been tested for H5N8? What is the impact of H5N8 in Pheasants – do they die off quickly as is often the case in poultry or not? Can you tell me?
Would you like to disclose any links you have with game shooting?