Local farms and rescuers brace for renewed threat of bird flu

Bird keepers and protectors in the Royal Borough are getting their ducks in a row to prepare for avian flu that is sweeping through the UK and Europe.

Though not considered dangerous to humans, this disease can be devastating to birds.

It became a big issue in RBWM and surrounding areas in 2022, with hundreds of birds dying off and dozens of rescue swans needing to be humanely culled to stop the spread.

This year, bird flu has yet to get this far down south, though the problem has been rumbling on further north for weeks, with livestock lost and the supply of Christmas turkeys threatened.

Tom C Copas, who runs Copas Traditional Turkeys in Cookham, says all is well on their end so far – but the farm is not taking the matter lightly.

“It is a national problem and it's really bad,” he said. “It's actually more virulent than it was in 2022, the way it's kind of suddenly appeared.

“[The industry] went from maybe two cases a week to two cases a day overnight.”

Though ideally Tom would like to see a vaccine programme, he is glad the Government has put a housing order in place, requiring birds to be kept indoors to control the spread of bird flu.

“We’d rather see the turkeys outside, but it's a good it's a good step in prevention,” Tom said.

Regionally, Copas Turkeys is fortunate, he added – it is not surrounded by other large poultry sites and is not on the routes where large numbers of migratory wild birds travel through.

“But we are very live to the situation,” he said. “We limit who's going into the sheds to try and mitigate what we can.

He added: “Previously, because bird flu broke out a lot earlier in the year, we processed early – but we're not doing that this year.”

On the wild birds front, Wendy Herman from the service Swan Support said: “It seems to be hitting everywhere at the moment worse than ever, so I think it's only a matter of time before it does hit us, unfortunately.”

As to why the flu is back, she said it’s because birds that survived 2022 gained immunity, but now there is a new batch without it. Bird flu tends to peak every three or four years, she said.

Though there is not a lot that can be done to stop wild birds from catching avian flu, there are precautions swan rescue centres can make – for example, not taking in birds from other areas.

“Before bird flu, we might pick a bird up with a minor injury for a few days to rest,” said Wendy.

“Now we can't do that unless it's life-threatening, because we can't risk one bird coming into our centre with possible bird flu. That one bird could kill 20-30. It’s irresponsible.”

In terms of what the public can do to help, Wendy suggests that, when visiting an area where there may be bird flu, to disinfect footwear before going to new area.

“[But] my recommendation would be, if you know it’s a place where there's bird flu, don't visit,” she added.