"Our desire for cheap chicken contributes to the death of majestic seabirds"

Bird flu, particularly a strain thought to originate from poultry farming in China, puts wild birds at risk and is out of control. control, says Mirror environment editor Nada Farhoud

A common guillemot sits on a beach in Soulac-sur-Mer in southwestern France (

Image: AFP via Getty Images

Every spring, millions of seabirds arrive off the British coast to breed - one of the wonders of the natural world.

But many of these majestic creatures are now dying in large numbers from a deadly strain of bird flu.

Puffins and other rare seabirds are endangered, forcing the National Trust to close Northumberland's Farne Islands to visitors.

The decision came last week when the RSPCA announced that its rescue centers in England and Wales were no longer accepting injured birds due to the risk of bird flu, although officers would continue to take care of reports of sick and injured birds.

Dog walkers are asked to keep their dogs on a leash when walking on the beaches and have been warned not to touch any birds that have washed ashore.

Bird flu is said to have originated in large poultry farms (

Picture:

VCG via Getty Images)

The latest official figures have confirmed cases of bird flu in England, Scotland and Wales.

Experts say rocks in important breeding grounds, like the Shetland Islands, which teemed with life a month ago, are surrounded by sick and fit birds plummeting into the sea. that they can go blind first.

It is estimated that three quarters of the skua population was wiped out in Shetland.

The ability of these seabird colonies to survive and reproduce has already been severely affected by the overfishing of our seas and the impact of climate change, which is pushing the fish they feed on further north due to warming seas.

And now a third factor, industrial poultry farming in East Asia, thought to be the cause of bird flu, is putting these colonies at risk.

This strain emerged 25 years ago in commercial poultry in China and was controlled by vaccination or biosecurity.

But it is now spreading through wild bird populations and is out of control.

Worldwide, more than 70 million birds have been culled. Experts...