Farms braced for 'catastrophic' bird flu

The risk from bird flu to humans remains low

People working with birds across Berkshire are on high alert for potential bird flu after about 1.8m were culled across the UK in three months.

Bird flu was last spotted in the Royal County in 2023 and had a "catastrophic" impact, the owner of a business that delivers about 3,000 eggs a week said.

Last week, after 33 outbreaks of the virus across England, the government said bird-keepers in more counties would have to keep their flocks indoors.

Jerome Challen's business Challen's Chicks currently has about 9,000 hens, with that set to increase to about 12,000.

"It can happen to absolutely anybody. All you need is a bird flying above, dropping down, having a peck around, interacting with one of your birds and, from what I've been told, it's horrific," Mr Challen said.

"I remember one guy told me there were 16,000 birds in a hen house and 50 were dead one morning. Then it was 500 and then the next day it was 3,000."

The BBC previously reported that the risk to humans remains low, with chicken and eggs safe to eat if properly cooked, but there are concerns about the impact it is having on farmers' mental health.

The extra measures introduced on Sunday impact Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Cheshire, Merseyside and Lancashire.

The East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Shropshire and York and North Yorkshire are also affected.

Wendy Herman, the operations director for Berkshire charity Swan Support, said staff were having to take precautions when they helped birds.

"We removed a hook from a swan's tongue on Friday," she said.

"Normally we would bring it in for a few days to have antibiotics. But now we are having to make the decision to leave it where it is because we could be bringing bird flu back with us and then it spreads."

The current strain of bird flu emerged in Hong Kong about 30 years ago, but only over recent years has it impacted the UK.