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‘Devastating’ bird flu epidemic enters third year
Bird lovers are bracing themselves for another heartbreaking winter of bird losses as the world’s worst bird flu epidemic shows no signs of abating. The current wave of bird flu is now in its third year, and millions of birds have already died – more than in any previous single outbreak.
Most fatalities have been water birds, which tend to gather in large colonies where disease spreads quickly. Scotland has lost nearly half its population of skuas, while this summer over 10 per cent of the UK’s black-headed seagulls died along with thousands of kittiwakes, terns and guillemots.
The UK Government is now asking the public to report even single dead birds in an effort to track the disease more closely. “We know the devastating impact avian influenza can have,” said a spokesperson for the Animal and Plant Health Agency. Government advice is not to handle dead or sick birds, wash your hands with soap and water after feeding wild birds, and keep feeders and baths clean. “Scrupulous biosecurity is the most effective method of disease control,” the spokesperson added.
There is so far no evidence that wild garden birds are at risk from bird flu, although a crow, pigeons, several birds of prey and a pheasant were among this year’s confirmed cases. Rob Jaques, Garden Birdwatch Development Officer for the British Trust for Ornithology, says everyone should remain vigilant. “We’re seeing bird flu hanging around in summer now too and affecting species not known to be affected before,” he says. “So if you live in an area with a serious bird flu outbreak, it’s a good idea to stop feeding birds for the time being.”
Over 60 per cent of households have at least one bird feeder in the garden, however, research has shown bird feeders encourage birds to gather together and mix with other species more, helping to spread diseases such as avian pox and trichomonosis, blamed for plummeting populations of greenfinches: numbers are down by over a third in the two decades since the disease emerged.
“Feeding birds risks doing more harm than the good you’re trying to do if you’re not aware of the risks,” says Adrian Thomas, wildlife gardening expert at the Royal Society for the Protection of Bi
