AVIAN INFLUENZA

A GLOBAL ISSUE

Lewis Phillips delves into how the spread of HPAI has arrived on UK shores and what it means for native and captive bird species across Britain.

Avian Influenza or Avian Flu has been around for over 100 years. The first record of this disease known technically as HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza)was in 1878, when people noticed a disease in poultry which showed differences from other illnesses and it caused many deaths. From 1959 to 1995, the HPAI viruses was recorded on 15 occasions, but losses were minimal.

The situation worsened between 1996 and 2008 when HPAI returned at least 11 times, with 4 of these occasions causing tens of millions of birds to be infected. The current epidemic however is far worse than the ones from the recent past.

It is now estimated to have covered 3 continents with up to 60 countries being affected and hundreds of millions of birds...

...read more in Issue 0.

WORDS: LEWIS PHILLIPS

IMAGES: LEWIS PHILLIPS