Bird Flu

[Vaughan]

Excuse me asking but if this epidemic is being caused by wild birds migrating from other countries, I can't see where walking your dog in a meadow is going to change anything.

These things happen now and again but wildfowl and other wildlife recover their numbers very quickly.

The chairman of the Broads Society (who at least are doing something positive for a change) may not have been there in the big drought of 1976, when the wetlands and reedbeds dried out, exposing the mud to the air and causing a big outbreak of botulism, which did very nearly kill all the waterbirds.

All it took was the usual doom watch article in the tatty tabloids, to say that it could spread to humans (which was totally untrue but never retracted) and that was the end of that season's holiday bookings on the Broads.

[kpnut]

This might sound harsh, but swans succumbing to bird flu and dying a relatively quick death might be better than the inevitable slower death by starvation of quite a few over the next year or so anyway due to the noticeable population explosion of swans this season.
It’s not sustainable for a pair of swans to rear up to 8 cygnets to adulthood, each of which needs to find food and territory for itself. Increases in wild populations normally lead to population crashes at some point down the line. 
Although I’m not knocking the hand feeding by us lot, (it is and always has been one of life’s simple pleasures and does a lot to connect people to the world outside), the extra food the babies get from humans allows more of them to survive to adulthood.

Nature normally dictates that an animal produces more young than can survive in order to maintain, not increase the population. 
 

Well done to the vets etc who are finding poorly ones and putting them out of their misery quickly too. 

[Vaughan]

34 minutes ago, kpnut said:

This might sound harsh, but swans succumbing to bird flu and dying a relatively quick death might be better than the inevitable slower death by starvation of quite a few over the next year or so anyway due to the noticeable population explosion of swans this season.

This is really what I wanted to say myself, but didn't quite have the courage!  

I hate to sound callous, but if this knocks off half of the Greylag and Canada goose population, that might be a good thing all round.

[Gracie]

6 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

This is really what I wanted to say myself, but didn't quite have the courage!  

 

You not having the courage of your convictions, never  I'd believe anything you post on here than any tatty tabloid any day of the week

I saw an article about it on the news last night too, so sad seeing such beautiful creatures suffering and the good people searching for the sick one's to end their suffering, I couldn't do it x

[Cheesey69]

Is it me or is The Broads population of wildlife seriously out of whack?

in the 90’s, grebe’s everywhere and seeing a kingfisher was a treat, now it’s the other way round. Swans everywhere and great flocks of geese but not so many ducks. 
Not seen many Dragon flies as I used to. 
First noticed this around the time the river banks was rebuilt and lagoons was installed behind especially on the Ant but things are certainly different than they was. 
I know the Broads are not really natural but are these change to fast?

[SwanR]

We've just had a few days afloat. Saw a few kingfishers up the Ant, and some otters too. A few swans but not a lot of other birds. Not that we went to Ranworth or Salhouse which is where we usually see the most geese and ducks.

[FlyingFortress]

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

This might sound harsh, but swans succumbing to bird flu and dying a relatively quick death might be better than the inevitable slower death by starvation of quite a few over the next year or so anyway due to the noticeable population explosion of swans this season.
It’s not sustainable for a pair of swans to rear up to 8 cygnets to adulthood, each of which needs to find food and territory for itself. Increases in wild populations normally lead to population crashes at some point down the line. 
Although I’m not knocking the hand feeding by us lot, (it is and always has been one of life’s simple pleasures and does a lot to connect people to the world outside), the extra food the babies get from humans allows more of them to survive to adulthood.

Nature normally dictates that an animal produces more young than can survive in order to maintain, not increase the population. 
 

Well done to the vets etc who are finding poorly ones and putting them out of their misery quickly too. 

Very brave thing to say and I applaud both you and Vaughan for addressing the Elephant in the room.

👍🫣👍

[FlyingFortress]

3 hours ago, Hylander said:

 

When I read this I immediately thought of my daughter-in-law,   no children , not by choice, but two schnauzers, little ones and she refers to them as her fur babies....

 

 

A picture of innocence if every I saw one. 

As Griff will attest he is a proper thief.

But he does look like butter wouldn't melt doesn't he.

He may be a hooligan but he is our hooligan 😁😳😁

[Turnoar]

Biked over to Hickling first thing this morning, nice journey but really sad arrival. 3 dead birds, one white swan with either a cygnet or other small bird alongside at the end of the PB dyke, and one that could possibly be a black swan in the basin of the dyke which was my grandads boathouse back in the 60s.

I know it’s not many birds but three too many for me. Vandalism evident in the council toilets too just to take further shine off the visit, reported but mindless to put it mildly.

Hope the bird flu goes away soon, I suppose these ones are at least out of what may have been a miserable demise.

[Andrewcook]

What gets me is these two types of Flu One for Humans and Two for wildlife such as Swans / Ducks/ Geese / Chickens and Turkeys hopefully all these will soon be rid of as they both come from China which is a very unhealthy country 

[grendel]

saying china is an unhealthy country is rather simplifying the situation, basically they have a very large population, and being a largely sub tropical country they do not have a winter as such, so there is nothing to slow and prevent transmission of viruses in a seasonal fashion.

most flu viruses are first experienced as avian flu, which then gets transferred to humans. new flu strains dont exclusively originate in china though.

there is an interesting article here - https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna4135122 that looks into the subject, and the likely cause is the large human population, combined with a large domestic avian population in the region.

[YnysMon]

I saw a programme several years back on the subject of flu viruses tending to originate in China. They put forward a theory that it was because of their habit of raising pigs and birds (chickens) in close proximity, so although humans don’t normally catch avian flu, pigs can, and then the viruses are transmittable from pigs to humans.

[Heron]

Was the programme American by any chance?

[YnysMon]

No, I think it was BBC. Not one of your ‘hyped’ productions…more based on actual research. Quite dry and boring in production values, which I usually think is a good thing.

[Turnoar]

Had a letter from DEFRA today, there has been an outbreak of bird flu in my area. I’m either in, or very close to, a declared AI protection or surveillance zone. I don’t keep poultry or captive birds but I can still help by reporting dead wild birds. Shame they didn’t write to me a few weeks ago... The APHA is responsible for animal health, doing everything they can, but they need my support, animal disease control is everybody’s responsibility so that includes yours truly I guess. I had noticed that the pigeons have disappeared from my garden but wasn’t overly bothered tbh. Thanks for the heads up Christine Middlemiss, UK Chief Veterinary Officer. And it’s good luck to all the wildlife out there!

[Mouldy]

4 minutes ago, Turnoar said:

Had a letter from DEFRA today, there has been an outbreak of bird flu in my area. I’m either in, or very close to, a declared AI protection or surveillance zone. I don’t keep poultry or captive birds but I can still help by reporting dead wild birds. Shame they didn’t write to me a few weeks ago... The APHA is responsible for animal health, doing everything they can, but they need my support, animal disease control is everybody’s responsibility so that includes yours truly I guess. I had noticed that the pigeons have disappeared from my garden but wasn’t overly bothered tbh. Thanks for the heads up Christine Middlemiss, UK Chief Veterinary Officer. And it’s good luck to all the wildlife out there!

Just one letter?  We had three delivered to us one day last week!  Why they thought we needed so many copies of the same letter, I just can’t fathom, unless they thought that the Royal Mail needed a bit more volume to carry during the continuing industrial action.