Tag Archives: avian flu

HUGE numbers of dead sea birds are washing up on Clare’s coastline due to avian flu, prompting a call for state assistance to deal with the issue. “We are seeing huge numbers of dead sea birds around our coast, in particular gannnets, due to the avian flu,” said Councillor Cillian Murphy. “I’m not a scientist but what I understand from speaking to  people who are is that normally the avian flu would die off in the summer when they’re in their colonies, but this particular variation hasn’t, and it has really impacted on seabirds really heavily.” With many of the birds washing up on beaches, he said that Clare County Council staff members have to deal with them appropriately and need protective clothing. He put forward a motion requesting the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine “allocate funding to local authorities for the additional resources required to deal with the costs of cleaning up and managing the consequences of …

A WHITE-tailed Sea Eagle, which was born in the spring of 2017, has been confirmed to be Ireland’s first and only case of the highly pathogenic avian influenza this year. The eagle, called Shannon, was found dead on the shores of Lough Derg in County Tipperary on January 31 and, following testing, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has confirmed that the avian influenza subtype H5N6 was detected in the wild bird. This is the highly pathogenic strain that has previously been confirmed in Great Britain and mainland Europe. It is the only case detected in Ireland so far. In a statement to The Clare Champion, the Department of Agriculture outlined that the White-tailed Sea Eagle is a re-introduced species, monitored by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Golden Eagle Trust. “Any dead White-tailed Sea Eagle that are recovered are submitted to the Department of Agriculture’s regional laboratories for post-mortem. This was the only White-tailed Sea Eagle …