Record Breaking Bird Flu Outbreak Hits the UK

In recent months, the UK has been plagued by a record epidemic of bird flu, which has resulted in the culling of 500,000 caged birds.

Migratory wild birds carry the illness from Europe, where significant infection levels have been seen.

After a postmortem by the pathology laboratory at Scotland's Rural College, a rare white-tailed eagle discovered dead on Skye was among the wild birds to test positive for bird flu.

It's likely to be Scotland's first confirmed case of bird flu in an eagle. On November 14, an adult eagle from a well-established territory on Trotternish was discovered dead. It may have eaten diseased greylag geese, according to ornithologists.

According to Middlemiss, nearly 300 wild birds with the illness had been discovered in more than 80 locales. She stated that there were "a lot of viruses out there." Although there is little risk to humans, diseased birds should not be handled.

"We used to have a reasonable-sized epidemic and then two or three calm years," she explained. But that isn't the case right now. This is something we're witnessing all around Europe. We need to figure out why we're getting these illnesses year after year."

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"We're continuing to get fresh detections," Middlemiss replied when asked if the sickness was still spreading. I confirmed two more last night, and we've been running at that pace for the past week or so. We're seeing a lot of infectious pressure from our wild birds."

Middlemiss advised yard bird feeder owners to "take normal hygiene measures."

"If you own hens and want to feed wild birds, make sure everything is spotless and separate, so you don't infect your birds and make them ill," she warned.

On-going Study

"We don't know explicitly, but it's certainly one of the thoughts that our specialists are thinking," Middlemiss said when asked if the climate issue was to blame for the rising illness. During the summer, the birds fly to the north of Russia, where they interact with birds from various parts of the world and exchange diseases. As a result, it's highly possible that different mixing is occurring as a result of climate change and changes in routes."

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