According to the collected data GuardIn the UK, bird flu has killed more than twice as many wild birds as previously estimated. The death toll is likely to rise during this year’s breeding season.
A highly contagious variant of H5N1 caused the worst avian influenza epidemic in Europe and resulted in the most significant and sudden bird deaths in decades. Conservationists warn that this could mean the extinction of some seabird species, as nesting colonies are particularly hard hit.
Earlier this year, black-headed gulls, which began nesting in early April, were reportedly hit hard across the country before most other seabirds do. According to ornithologists, a total of 1,200 birds died in the reserves in 2023, the vast majority of which were black-headed gulls.
Environmentalists at the Wildlife Trust say they have “never seen such a high mortality rate” in Yorkshire’s largest black-headed gull colony in the North Cave Wetlands Nature Reserve, with 10% of the 2,000 black-headed gull pairs that breed here dead. However, there are signs that the worst is over.
Yorkshire WWF Regional Manager David Craven said: “After the initial spread of the virus throughout the colony, reaching 10% with a very rapid increase in mortality, we are now seeing a slowdown in the numbers of dead and dying birds, leading us to hope that the disease in the colony will go away. “.
Data from The Guardian shows that more than 36,000 birds have died from bird flu in Scotland, with seabirds and waterfowl most affected. During the winter of 2021-2022, at least 13,000 Svalbard Mussel Goose died, a third of the total.
A total of 7,300 deaths have been recorded in England, split between two regions off the Northumberland coast – the Farne Islands (about 6,000 deaths) and Coke Island (about 1,300 deaths), home to rare birds such as arctic and black-headed terns. .
Former officials of Yoshkar-Ola announced quarantine in certain areas due to bird flu.