Blogs

The government has announced an outbreak of bird flu on a chicken farm in Dereham, Norfolk. Current information from Defra suggests that this is an H7 virus, and that it is likely to be a low pathogenicity form of the disease. If so, it is a different...

Government officials today confirmed that the H5N1 positive swan discovered in Cellardyke, Scotland was a whooper swan, not as previously thought a mute swan. Initial identification had been hampered by the advanced state of decay of the carcass and the...

The Scottish Executive has now set up a 3km 'protection zone' around Cellardyke, where the dead swan was found, and a 10 km 'surveillance zone' around that. The Scottish Executive have also set up a 2,500 sq km ‘wild bird risk area’...

Government sources confirmed today that the virus isolated from the dead swan in Fife, east Scotland was the Highly Pathogenic H5N1 type. It is stressed that this is a disease of birds and it is extremely difficult for humans to contract it. Nevertheless...

The Government has announced that Highly Pathogenic H5 avian influenza was confirmed in the UK on 5 April 2006. Confirmation of the 'N' type is expected shortly. The virus was detected in a dead mute swan near Anstruther in Fife, East Scotland...

Winter has been very slow to lose its force at Saltholme and throughout much of March, this part of north-east England has been in the grip of icy easterly winds. A red-necked grebe, which turned up in the middle of the month, was a rare winter visitor...

Last month I posed the question of what the spring would bring. This month I feel like asking, 'What spring?' With temperatures well below the national average, and cold northerly or easterly winds were more reminiscent of January than March,...

Despite the driest January on record, we have been busy creating our new wet features at the farm. Created by broadening and constructing bunds in some of our watercourses and ditches, we aim not only to improve the feeding opportunities for a range of...

Spring migrants are arriving in the UK, and the breeding season is getting underway. The RSPB, the British Trust for Ornithology and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust are issuing clear advice to inform the public, and to counter some of the concerns that...

This page will keep you up-to-date with the movement of bird flu and how it affects the UK. As of today (16 March 2006) the unusually virulent strain of avian influenza known as H5N1 has spread to Europe from south-east Asia. There have been numerous...