JULY 2022
■ WITH avian influenza ever-constant on our news pages, the UK government announced that a consortium of scientists from eight British institutions had come together to develop new strategies to fight future strains of bird flu. The group received £1.5 million in funding from DEFRA and the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council (BBSRC). Professor Melanie Welham, BBSRC executive chair, said: “This new national consortium will study the unprecedented avian influenza outbreak to better understand this latest strain and how to tackle it.”
■ MORE positive news, with the announcement that the Spix’s macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), once extinct in the wild, was released back into the wild in Brazil for the first time in more than 20 years. Thanks to decades of conservation work, the Spix’s Macaw Action Plan (SMAP) was able to release eight birds near to Curaca and 12 more birds were due to be released before the end of the year.
■ CONTINUING the theme of reintroductions, red kites born in the UK were sent to Spain to help boost its declining population
