The Scottish government announced today a case of bird flu in captive gamebirds near Glenrothes.
in an email to stakeholders the Scottish government say:
These gamebirds have never been wild and so can only have caught avian influenza on the establishment.
and
In light of evidence from the continent and ongoing high numbers of findings among wild bird populations in GB, the risk of incursion of avian influenza has been increased to very high for wild birds, medium for poultry with high biosecurity, and high for poultry with poor biosecurity.
It is highly questionable whether there are ‘ongoing high numbers of findings among wild populations in GB‘ as in the first four weeks of 2021 there have been only 12 cases across Great Britain involving only 19 birds. Is that high? It’s difficult to tell because the UK government does not tell us how many birds were tested and you have to remember that only dead birds are tested and the encouragement is for those species already believed to be particularly prone to bird flu to be tested. We are not told how many birds test negative. However, it’s not as high as earlier this winter.
Interesting that it was in gamebirds though…
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