Abstract Title
Highly pathogenic avian influenza in wild birds in the United Kingdom 2022-2023: impacts, conservation and knowledge gaps.
Abstract
Since the start of the recent 2021 outbreak of H5NI Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the UK, a number of different quantitative data sources on the mortality associated with HPAI have been collated by statutory nature conservation bodies, and conservation and volunteer-based organisations. These ranged from detailed post-hoc assessment of mortality in individual sites (e.g. reviews by site managers, or individuals tasked to undertake a detailed analysis of mortality data), ongoing data entry into three national databases by site managers, to ad-hoc observations submitted by the birdwatchers in the BTO BirdTrack app and website. For some species, specific assessments of mortality in a site or group of sites has been published. The UK hosts internationally important numbers of breeding waterbirds and this species group was most affected with minimum estimates of mortality in some common species exceeding 10% of the UK's breeding population. Most affected were Great Skua Stercorarius skua, Northern Gannet Morus bassanus, Barnacle Goose Branta leucopsis and Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus. Other gull, terns and auk species were also heavily impacted. For seabirds at least, ad hoc mortality reporting was closely related to the actual population impact as measured in follow up breeding surveys in 2023. During the outbreak management guidelines were put in place and a number of data gaps and research priorities identified.
Co-Author(s)
Atkinson, Phil1, Dawn Balmer1, Niall Burton1, Gary Clewley1, Teresa Frost1, Sarah Harris1, Liz Humphreys1, Nina O’Hanlon1, Chris Pollock1, and James Pearce-Higgins1
1British Trust for Ornithology, Thetford, Norfolk, England
Abstract Category
Notable outbreaks, field and molecular epidemiology, and surveillance in wild birds