A new variant of avian flu derived from intensive poultry farming is decimating British wildlife.

https://www.newstatesman.com/environment/biodiversity/2022/07/bird-flu-dead-birds-falling-sky-going-get-worse

ByIndia Bourke

Political paralysis, looming recession andclimate change: dark metaphorical clouds are hanging over Britain – and now dead birds are falling from the sky. Take a walk along a beach in Scotland or down the east coast of England this summer and you are likely to find the bodies of sick seabirds washed up on the shore. In Brighton last weekend a seagull dropped dead mid-flight.

If this feels particularly apocalyptic, even by 2022’s standards, then it should. “The last nine months have been unprecedented,” an RSPB officer said. “We have never seen anything like this before.”

The deaths are the result of a new variant of H5N1, a strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or “bird flu”. Low-pathogenic bird flu circulates naturally…