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Guillemots, kittiwakes and terns in Scotland have suffered “huge losses” this summer due to avian flu, according to Scotland’s nature agency.

There were among 9,610 reports of dead and sick wild birds reported to NatureScot between 3 April and 1 October, mostly along the east coast.

Experts say there are signs some birds are building immunity to the virus.

But at Aberdeenshire’s Forvie National Nature Reserve alone more than 40% of this year’s tern chicks died.

NatureScot said that a degree of natural mortality is normal among tern chicks, but the scale and sudden nature of avian flu-related deaths this past summer has been unusual.

And when combined with the number of adult deaths reported, the losses are extremely concerning for the recovery of the long-lived birds.

The avian flu outbreak in wild birds in the UK began in 2021. Its risk to human health is low.

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Following a quiet start to spring this year, a sudden increase in mortalities began in June and reached a peak in mid-July when around 2,300 sick and dead birds were reported to NatureScot in a two-week period.

The agency said guillemots, kittiwakes, and terns have experienced huge losses at their breeding colonies this summer.

The highest number of reported mortalities were among guillemots, a seabird of the auk family – 3,519 deaths were reported over the summer.

Eileen Stuart, NatureScot’s deputy director of nature and climate change, said: “With very few great skua and gannet deaths this summer, we are hopeful that some wild birds are building immunity to HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza].

“But other species, such as kittiwakes and terns that were impacted last year, have still been greatly affected this year.”

‘Wake-up call’

The agency said many seabirds are already experiencing multiple pressures and population declines and they are trying to understand why some species have been hit harder than others.

It also said populations are likely to take years to recover, with an estimated 20,000 seabirds perishing from avian flu in summer 2022 in addition to the deaths this summer.

Claire Smith, the senior policy officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland, said it was devastating to see thousands of dead birds again this year.

“This needs to be a wake-up call to step up the speed and scale of practical conservation actions to help our globally important seabird populations recover,” she said.

by: Krista Burns

Posted: Oct 10, 2023 / 03:14 PM CDT

Updated: Oct 10, 2023 / 04:32 PM CDT

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — 13 states, including South Dakota, are opposing a new Massachusetts law involving strict hog-housing requirements.

This means states cannot sell or ship pork through Massachusetts if they do not meet the new requirements.

The law, which was passed by voters in 2016, requires pigs have enough room to turn around and lie down.An autumn storm will bring rain and snow to KELOLAND

The states fighting against this new law say it will cost pork producers across the country hundreds of millions of dollars and dramatically raise pork prices.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court backed a similar law in California that requires more space for breeding pigs.

By Dan Flynn on October 10, 2023

The break in the blue flu outbreak that began last April may be over.

The first spread of the virus since then has occurred in a 47,300 flock of turkeys in South Dakota.

The turkey farm in Jeruald County, SD, was forced to kill its flock to control the disease outbreak.

Commercial flocks of U.S. chickens, turkeys, and other poultry totaling 58.8 million birds had to be killed between 2022 and the spring of 2023.

Bird flu appeared to come to either an end or a break last April after commercial farms in both South and North Dakota experienced infections.

Since last spring, commercial poultry has worked to rebuild flocks. Before the latest outbreak, commercial blocks for the summer months escaped from infections.

The break may be over with the commercial U.S. poultry experiencing the first bird flu infections since last April.

That means more infected flocks will have to be culled to control the spread of the avian virus.

Avian flu has led to higher egg and poultry prices during inflationary times.  The break that has occurred since last April has helped those higher prices.

While only one human illness in the U.S. is known to have occurred,  two deaths in Cambodia, a 50-year-old man and a two-year-old girl, were likely caused recently by avian flu.   

Officially called “Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI),”  or referred to as “bird flu,” it went on a rampage for the year, resulting in the loss of 58 million birds. 

With the break over, fears are building around the possibility that HPAI will become a regular seasonal event and that the virus may be present in both wild birds and domestic flocks. It has also been detected in mammals.

A 2-year-old girl has become the second person in Cambodia to die of bird flu this week, and the third this year

BySOPHENG CHEANG Associated Press

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/cambodia-records-bird-flu-death-week-year-after-103852600

October 10, 2023, 2:08 AM

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A 2-year-old girl is the second person in Cambodia to die of bird flu this week, and the third this year, the country’s Health Ministry has announced.

Laboratory tests confirmed that the girl, who lived in the southeastern province of Prey Veng, died Monday with H5N1 avian influenza, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry had announced on Sunday that a 50-year-old man in neighboring Svay Rieng province also had died from bird flu. In February, an 11-year-old girl became the country’s first bird flu fatality since 2014. Her father was also found to be infected but survived.

According to a global tally by the U.N.‘s World Health Organization, from January 2003 to July 2023, there have 878 cases of human infection with H5N1 avian influenza reported from 23 countries, 458 of them fatal. Cambodia had recorded 58 cases since 2003 of humans infected with bird flu.

“Since 2003, this virus has spread in bird populations from Asia to Europe and Africa, and to the Americas in 2021, and has become endemic in poultry populations in many countries,” the WHO says on its website. “Outbreaks have resulted in millions of poultry infections, several hundred human cases and many human deaths. Human cases have been reported mostly from countries in Asia, but also from countries in Africa, the Americas and Europe.”

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The United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last month that bird flu outbreaks were on the rise globally, with more than 21,000 outbreaks across the world between 2013 and 2022. Bird flu only rarely infects humans.

Scientists worry that rising cases of H5N1, particularly in animals that have frequent contact with humans, might lead to a mutated version of the disease that could spread easily between people, triggering another pandemic.

Chhuon Srey Mao, the 22-year-old mother of the dead girl, told The Associated Press by phone from Chhmar Lort village that her daughter fell sick on Oct. 1 with symptoms of coughing, high temperature and vomiting. The girl received treatment from a local physician for five days, but was sent on Oct. 5 to the capital Phnom Penh for advanced care when her condition worsened. She died at the children’s hospital.

The mother said that from late September, several chickens in her village, including at least four of her own, had died. She added that she had discarded the chickens that died, not cooking them for food. People have caught the virus both from domestic fowl and from wild birds such as ducks.

“I have no idea why my daughter would contract bird flu because she never touched or ate the dead chickens,” Chhuon Srey Mao said, “But I presume that she may have become infected with the virus when she played in the yard, as she normally did, where the chickens had been.”

She said the five surviving members of her family are in good health, but she is worried about them. Health officials have been to her village to deploy a virus-killing spray at her home and others, and advised all the villagers to report if they get sick.