Bird/poultry flu update

A poultry farm in the Brecks is affected. And there is a long list of ‘wild’ birds that have tested positive too in the last week reported (up to 30 November); The list of birds is interesting; lots of Mute Swans (and some Black) and some raptors. The pile of Mute Swans from Dorset are…

Bird/poultry flu in proper wild birds in Northumberland

Lindisfarne is a fantastic place: it’s beautiful scenically and stuffed full of birds, particularly in winter. One of the ‘star’ birds (all birds are stars, even Linnets) is the Light-bellied (or Pale-bellied) Brent Goose which visits the area around Lindisfarne in winter after travelling from its breeding grounds in the high Arctic in Svalbard (Spitzbergen),…

Bird/poultry flu update

Cases of bird/poultry flu in wildish birds are filling in the gaps on the map and creeping further north – to very near the Scottish Border in both Cumbria and Nortumberland. An excellent report in the Guardian makes slightly scary reading with Mute Swans spinning in cicles and bleeding from their nostrils. The quote from…

Bird/poultry flu update

There is another poultry farm, in Melton Mowbray, Leics, with avian flu (announced yesterday). DEFRA has updated its ‘wild’ birds register too. Mostly wild birds like Canada Geese… Many poultry farms are under lockdown but it is expected that some turkeys will be allowed to travel just before Christmas.

Bird/poultry flu at Slimbridge it seems

Yesterday DEFRA announced that avian influenza H5N8 (pathogenicity to be confirmed) has been confirmed in captive birds at non-poultry premises near Stroud in Gloucestershire. I think we can be fairly sure that this is Slimbridge WWT. And the cases in wild birds (which mostly appear, given the vague way in which DEFRAA reports these cases)…

More avian/poultry flu cases in captive and wild birds.

Poultry establishments: 2 November nr Deal, Kent 2 November, nr Frodsham, Cheshire 11 November, nr Leominster, Herefordshire ‘Wild’ birds including non-natives: Canada Goose and Greylag at WWT Slimbridge, Glos ‘Swan’ nr Dawlish, Devon (this was a Black Swan and cygnets according to the BBC) ‘Goose’ nr Weymouth, Devon (illustrated with a Canada Goose in the…

Another bird flu outbreak

All 13,000 birds kept at this site near Frodsham will be killed. This outbreak is of a different strain of bird (poultry) flu from that also announced yesterday in Kent. The DEFRA announcement has plenty of emphasis on the role of wild birds and see here for more information on a couple of Mute Swans…

Avian flu outbreak in Kent

If you go to the APHA website you’ll find this map of the location; Birders will recognise the area as Sandwich Bay with its Bird Observatory. I remember standing on the road which runs throughthe pink circle and looking west at an enclosure which we were told had some Beavers in it. Whereas the area…