Bird flu returns to Great Britain with first outbreak of the season

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N5 was confirmed in a small poultry flock at Knockaird, Ness, on 2 October, the first outbreak anywhere in Great Britain this season. A 3km protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone are now in force around the premises, and Defra confirmed on 3 October that Great Britain has lost its official freedom from the disease.

What do the control zones mean for shoots?

Inside the two zones the standard disease-control rules apply: poultry, hatching eggs, carcases, litter and manure move only under licence, records must be kept, and game birds must not be released. Any shoot, game farm or keeper whose ground falls even partly inside a zone is caught, because restrictions apply to the whole premises if any part of it sits within the boundary.

The zones around Ness cover a corner of Lewis rather than the gamebird heartlands, but they are the season’s warning shot. Where further outbreaks are confirmed on the mainland, the same rules will bite on release pens and game farms inside each new 3km and 10km circle. Keepers can check whether any ground falls inside a current zone on the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) interactive map.

Biosecurity is now the keeper’s first defence

The Scottish Government’s advice to anyone keeping poultry, game birds included, is to maintain as much separation as possible between kept birds and wild ones, with contact between kept birds and gulls flagged as a particular risk. Keepers with more than 500 birds must restrict access for non-essential visitors, have workers change clothing and footwear before entering bird enclosures, and clean and disinfect vehicles regularly.

Smaller flocks are under the same duty of vigilance, and an outbreak in a backyard flock triggers exactly the same restrictions as one on a commercial farm. There is currently no Avian Influenza Prevention Zone anywhere in Great Britain: the Scotland-wide zone was revoked on 4 June, so no extra housing or feeding rules apply outside the Lewis zones. The Scottish Government assesses the risk of the virus arriving in wild birds as low, with the risk to kept birds low where biosecurity is patchy and very low where it is stringent.

Why does losing disease-free status matter?

The status chiefly governs international trade in poultry and poultry products, and regaining it depends on stamping the outbreak out and the zones being lifted. For the shooting community the sharper point is what the confirmation signals: the virus is circulating again just as autumn migration builds and the game season hits its stride, after a summer in which Great Britain was clear.

What happens next

Avian influenza is a notifiable disease, and any suspicion of it in kept birds must be reported to APHA immediately. Dead wild birds should be reported rather than touched; wildfowlers and keepers walking the foreshore or the release pens are often the first to find them. The Lewis zones stay in force until they are lifted by declaration, and keepers can sign up to APHA’s free text and email alerts for new outbreaks. Shooting Times will report any new zones, and any move to a prevention zone, as the season goes on.