Standing up for Nature
New study shows role of bird flu in widespread declines of UK seabirds A new report by the RSPB has for the first time, quantified the effects of recent Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreaks on the populations of the UK’s seabirds. Of the 13 species included in the study, nine showed declines, three of…
The lists below tell you something of the progression of bird flu in wild birds in the UK since the winter of 2016/17. The data come from Defra – click here. You are able, and very welcome, to re-do this little analysis and see for yourself. I expect my version has a few errors in…
Black eyes in seabirds indicates bird flu survival Scientists have discovered evidence that Northern Gannets can recover from bird flu and that unusual black iris coloration is linked to a previous HPAIV infection The study also assessed the impact of HPAI on adult gannet survival at the largest gannet colony in the world – the…
The risk assessment published yesterday by Defra, but presumably done by APHA, is vaguely interesting but not spectacularly well-informed. It’s not that well-informed because no-one has invested in studying the process of disease transmission of avian flu to, within, or from wild birds. So there is quite a lot of guesswork dressed up as something…
Today I will carefully be reading this, Risk Assessment on the spread of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 to wild birds from released, formerly captive gamebirds in Great Britain: Pheasants (click here), which was rather quietly released by Defra yesterday. My aim is to blog about this by the end of the day, but…