Two things; today’s weekly update from DEFRA and an interesting remark on this morning’s Farming Today.
1. DEFRA’s weekly update (click here) is the usual less than transparent and informative list but you don’t often see Long-tailed Skua mentioned on a UK government website – might this be a first? Many of us heard about this bird, which died on Shetland, quite a while ago on social media and now it has made its way onto the official list. So Long-tailed Skua is a new species affected by bird flu in UK in 2022 and so, I think, is the Lesser Black-backed Gull that was listed last week (and which I overlooked).
Less surprising perhaps are more records of Pheasant – from Cheshire East and South Kesteven (the bit of Lincolnshire on your right if you drive up the A1 from Stamford to Newark). Was it a good idea to allow gamebird releases under these circumstances? DEFRA were warned that it wasn’t, but ploughed on regardless.
2. I was struck by this remark made by author David Quammen whose new book, Breathless, is about coronavirus and what might happen next when he spoke to Martha Kearney on Today this morning (click here – about 08:48), ‘The experts are always saying ‘Beware of the influenza!’. Beware of the avian influenzas that affect birds and sometimes spill over into mammals, including humans. There are some avian influenzas now that are spreading around the world, among domesticated birds and also wild birds. And we have, I believe it is, 35 billion chickens on this planet right now Martha. And those 35 billion domestic poultry represent a great Petri dish in which avian influenzas have the opportunity to transmit, to exist, to multiply, to mutate and to come in contact with humans. With human poultry workers, with human customers, with people who buy live birds at poultry markets and that is a great danger…’. That’s from the writer to predicted that something like coronavirus was bound to happen.
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