About AVIAN INFLUENZA (bird flu)
In recent years, there have been outbreaks of avian influenza in wild birds across the world. As migratory birds, particularly waterfowl, fly back from their summer breeding grounds, they can infect indigenous birds and poultry in other countries including the UK. Since the first outbreaks of bird flu in China and Hong Kong in 1997, the virus has spread worldwide and caused a series of outbreaks in wild and domesticated birds, most recently in the UK in 2021 and the winter of 2022.