Avian flu 2023 (and earlier) (1 Viewer)

[dantheman]

We had a flyer through our door (Cornwall, SW UK) 12 months or so ago from DEFRA, saying we had to inform them if we had or knew anyone in the vicinity keeping ducks or chickens outside as there was an outbreak. Not sure how it all panned out, but availability of local free-range eggs became really hard for a while, now prices have shifted from £1 half dozen to £1;50 or £2 half dozen - perhaps a combination of effects of culls and rising feed costs (wheat etc).

Not been following the wild bird situation locally.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

First, squirrels do belong to the order "rodentia" with a suborder of their own, so you may safely include them in "rodents".
I've not heard of squirrels or rodents bring infected, but the I don't think very many have looked closely into cause of death in squirrels. There is not much precise knowledge about which zoonoses squirrels carry.
Influensa viruses are not very species specific, so the answer is "We don't know"
Oh, and birds have a higher body temperature than mammals, one of the reasons they don't die from anthrax.
Per

As an aside, Bornavirus is the one to watch in squirrels. There may be others, but as Dyrlege says, precise knowledge is scarce.

 

[wheatearlp]

They appear to be doing well. I haven't seen any dead or sick-looking birds, or any reduction in numbers.

Black-headed Gulls were the only victims of bird-flu on my local reserve thus year - some birds collected and tested.
Only 80-90 all told, with the breeding colony dropping from c.1k pairs to 55-70. Those that bred seem to have avoided or recovered but, perhaps fortunately, the majority of the colony had deserted just before, or as, bird-flu hit due to predator incursion. However, another regional colony reported 600-800 deaths.
Re the corpses, Carrion Crows were the main scavengers with a little help from Jackdaws.

 

[wheatearlp]

We had a flyer through our door (Cornwall, SW UK) 12 months or so ago from DEFRA, saying we had to inform them if we had or knew anyone in the vicinity keeping ducks or chickens outside as there was an outbreak. Not sure how it all panned out, but availability of local free-range eggs became really hard for a while, now prices have shifted from £1 half dozen to £1;50 or £2 half dozen - perhaps a combination of effects of culls and rising feed costs (wheat etc).

Not been following the wild bird situation locally.

Had one of those too, as a localish poultry farm had an outbreak. Not known if that was linked to the outbreaks of bird-flu amongst BHGs.

 

[Dyrlege]

25 thousand dead black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) and (no more) counting.
Vadsø in North-east Norway (actually north of Russia!) has seen some nesting areas hard hit by avian flu, the worst being one of the R tridactyla areas where they now have stopped counting and just clear the dead birds. It is still ongoing at a horrific rate. H5N1 which like othe flu strains has zoonotic (including humans) potential.
Per