Tuesday 2 August 2022 11:00 PM Avian flu outbreak leaves thousands of wild birds dead and sparks concern from ... trends now

Tuesday 2 August 2022 11:00 PM Avian flu outbreak leaves thousands of wild birds dead and sparks concern from ... trends now
Tuesday 2 August 2022 11:00 PM Avian flu outbreak leaves thousands of wild birds dead and sparks concern from ... trends now

Tuesday 2 August 2022 11:00 PM Avian flu outbreak leaves thousands of wild birds dead and sparks concern from ... trends now

Huge expanses of bare rock have appeared along normally thronged stretches of British coastline, emptied by the death of thousands of birds.

Feathered carcasses litter beaches on islands off Scotland and the east coast. And, in Brighton, seagulls have been dropping dead out of the skies.

A total of 23 Scottish islands have been closed to visitors. Precious wildlife reserves, including one named after Sir David Attenborough in Nottinghamshire, have been devastated. And dozens of pheasant and partridge shoots have been called off before the season has started.

It is all down to an outbreak of avian flu among our wild birds that some experts say is the deadliest variant so far recorded not just in Britain, but worldwide.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has called it 'heartbreaking' while the National Trust says the mass deaths risk 'undoing decades of hard work to restore nature'.

And the Government is increasingly concerned that the bird flu, as it is more commonly known, may mutate and cause another pandemic in humans — perhaps one far more deadly than Covid-19.

After all, that is what happened with so-called Spanish flu at end of World War I. It was caused by a similar strain of the virus to that now in circulation among birds (H5N1) and although estimates vary greatly, the former is thought to have killed 50 million people — about one in every 35 of those alive at the time.

Pictured: The National Trust team of rangers clear deceased birds from Staple Island, one of the Outer Group of the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland

Pictured: The National Trust team of rangers clear deceased birds from Staple Island, one of the Outer Group of the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland 

Pictured: Clinical waste bags containing the carcasses of deceased birds await removal from Staple Island, one of the Outer Group of the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland

Pictured: Clinical waste bags containing the carcasses of deceased birds await removal from Staple Island, one of the Outer Group of the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland

Yesterday, Dr Christine Middlemiss, the UK's Chief Veterinary Officer, described a full-scale outbreak as an 'ongoing worry' that the Government is taking 'seriously'.

So what about the rest of us? Should we be panicking?

Influenza has plagued humankind since at least the days of Hippocrates, the 4th-century BC Greek 'father of medicine' who recorded its characteristic fever, fatigue, coughs and body aches.

Over the centuries it became clear that the disease follows a distinct pattern.

Although flus are always deadly to some extent in the vulnerable, they are relatively mild most years. But every generation or so, a variant rages across the world, killing the young and strong as well as the elderly, frail and sick.

The last time that happened was in 1918. But experts say another devastating flu pandemic is long overdue.

All human flu, as far as we know, originates in birds, although it often passes through another animal, such as a pig, in the process of mutating and adapting to infect us. Wild birds are carriers, especially through migration. As they cluster together to breed, the virus spreads rapidly and is then carried to other parts of the globe.

New strains tend to appear first in Asia, from where more than 60 species of shore birds, waders and waterfowl, including plovers, godwits and ducks, head off to Alaska to breed and mix with various migratory birds from the Americas. Others go west and infect European species.

Like Covid, flu is transmitted through close contact — droplets that are inhaled.

The National Trust, who care for the islands, have warned this number could be the

The National Trust, who care for the islands, have warned this number could be the 'tip of the iceberg' as cliff nesting birds, including guillemots and kittiwakes, will have fallen and been lost to the sea

Exposure to faeces and nasal mucus can also mean the virus is passed on.

Wild birds don't usually suffer serious ill-effects themselves — but mass death does result when they pass the disease on to domestic poultry, especially in giant intensive farms.

So one unsolved mystery of the present outbreak is why and how this strain has altered so

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