Avian flu is flying wild
A STRUGGLING shooting season has been dealt another blow following last week’s announcement of an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) across Great Britain to prevent further spread of the disease.
Shooting has suffered from the effects of avian flu for the entire season, with the outbreak causing poults and eggs imported from France to fall. As a result, some shoots have had to cut the number of days they can offer or, in some cases, not shoot at all. The latest news is bound to cause even more concern, as large pheasant populations in woods and pens are potentially extremely vulnerable to outbreaks.
‘It’s one thing after another for the shooting world at the moment,’ says writer and Shooting Times editor Patrick Galbraith. ‘The bird-flu situation is hugely worrying, but quite what it means at the moment isn’t clear. There is a real worry that wild birds could transmit the virus to gamebirds, which might in turn give it to other wild birds that fly their way. Birds don’t do lockdown.’
Speaking to the, Andy Patterson from the Animal and Plant Health Agency warned there was not much the Government could do to prevent the flu’s spread due to the high number of infected
