The variety of birds that succumbed to chicken flu within the Farne Islands has dropped by almost half this yr.
Last yr throughout the islands off the Northumberland coast, the illness accounted for the dying of greater than 6,000 birds. This yr the variety of useless birds discovered on the Farne Islands is 3,647 – partially because of the common pick-ups of useless birds by the ranger staff in efforts to cease the unfold of the illness.
Breeding Guillemots on the Farne Islands (Harriet Day).
The totals are nonetheless grim, however there will be some positivity taken from the lowered variety of deaths. Kittiwakes have been the toughest hit in the Farnes this yr, with almost 1,000 people collected.
Harriet Reid, a ranger within the Farne Islands, mentioned: “This yr we have been anxious to see whether or not we might as soon as once more witness the tragic influence of the illness on the returning seabirds after the illness hit us exhausting final yr.
“As quickly as we grew to become conscious of the presence of avian flu throughout the chicken inhabitants, we did every part doable to limit the unfold of the illness and closed the island to guests. This meant much less disturbance for the susceptible colonies, and we took the choice to select up useless birds to attempt to counter the unfold of the illness.
“Removing the seabirds as quickly as we discover them, does appear to have made a distinction however we have to quickly perceive what extra we will do to guard these treasured seabirds. Currently there’s little stable steering and we’re preventing in opposition to time to stop a long-term influence on some populations, significantly these species that are already struggling as a result of different pressures similar to local weather change.”
