• Update on H5N8
    Since I last updated this blog on 31 st December we have received information about two more confirmed cases of H5N8 on RSPB reserves: a wigeon on the Exe Estuary in Devon, and a teal at Conwy in north...
  • H5N8 continues to spread
    New outbreaks of avian influenza H5N8 this week in a commercial turkey flock in Lincolnshire, and a commercial flock of farmed breeding pheasants Lancashire, suggest that that the virus is continuing...
  • H5N8 avian influenza confirmed
    Defra animal health laboratory has confirmed that the outbreak in East Yorkshire is the H5N8 strain. This is the same strain as that which has caused outbreaks among poultry in Germany and the Netherlands...
  • H5N8 reaches the UK
    H5N8, the strain of avian influenza currently spreading across Europe, was confirmed on a turkey farm in Lincolnshire last Friday. Defra immediately put in place a 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance...
  • UN convened task force publish statement on H5N8
    Thankfully, since last month’s outbreak of avian influenza H5N8 on a duck breeding farm in East Yorkshire, there have been no further reports of avian influenza in the UK. Within the EU, H5N8 outbreaks...