The bird’s nest is a key factor in how quickly the virus is transmitted.
Ben Birchall/PA Images/Contributor/Getty
This story was originally published by theGuardianandis reproduced here as part of theClimate Deskcollaboration.
A quarter of Europe’sbreeding seabirds spend spring in the UK, turning our coastline into a giant maternity unit. These noisy outcrops usually stink of bird poo. However, this year has been different. “Instead of the smell of guano, it’s the smell of death,” says Gwen Potter, a National Trust countryside manager working on the Farne Islands, off the coast ofNorthumberland. “It’s completely horrendous.”
This annual congregation of life has turned into a super-spreader event, as a highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1—also known as bird flu—sweeps through populations of breeding birds, causing devastating…
View original post 1,635 more words
Exposing the Big Game 