After a series of localised outbreaks in the past few years, avian flu has re-emerged as a major driver of bird deaths across the UK. Until the past few weeks, the latest outbreak of the disease – also known as bird flu or, to scientists, highly pathogenic avian influenza – was treated primarily as a problem for chickens and other domestic birds. This triggered localised responses such as culls, and farmers were ordered to keep the animals indoors for six months over the winter, which is why the UK had a period with no free-range eggs.
But reports of large numbers of wild seabirds found dead in Scotland and increasingly in England and Wales, suggest that avian flu is now prevalent in wild birds across most of northern Britain. I encountered a number of these birds myself on the Northumberland coast.
