BIRD FLU DEVASTATION
WHAT IS BIRD FLU?
The latest wave of avian flu descends from the H5N1 strain of avian influenza that originally arrived in the UK in 2005/06, most likely from dense poultry and geese farms in China and South East Asia.
“Most of the time this has behaved like a normal, natural avian flu, coming and going, bad some years then dropping to a low level,” says Martin Fowlie of the RSPB. “But it’s fair to say this is the worst-ever outbreak in the UK. We have been in unchartered territory with the disease this year and its effects on wild birds. It has mutated into a really nasty strain.”
The latest version emerged in the summer of
