The Welsh Government has confirmed an outbreak of highly pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 at a farm in Powys, mid-Wales.
Stringent movement restrictions have been put in place and according to the Government’s declaration notice, the incident centres on grid reference SO12811 97467, which is at Bettws Hall, which describes itself as ‘Europe’s leading game hatchery’, producing pheasant, red-legged partridge and duck chicks for the gamebird shooting industry.
The Chief Veterinary Officer for Wales has written a declaration notice, which defines the protection and surveillance zones and details the restrictions now in place (from 27th April 2023 until further notice). The declaration notice can be read here:
This latest outbreak will be a blow, not only to Bettws, who are now unable to release gamebirds on their own shoot, but also to the wider game-shooting industry because Bettws Hall is a significant gamebird producer. Each year, according to its own promotional brochure, Bettws produces ‘in excess’ of 1.7 million pheasants, 35,000 ducks and an unknown quantity of red-legged partridges for gamebird shoots across the UK and the Irish Republic.
At a time when the UK shooting industry is looking to UK-based producers for its gamebird supply, rather than remaining reliant upon the big suppliers in France (and a few other European countries) where bird flu has recently disrupted the supply/delivery chain and caused a huge reduction in the number of shoots and the number of birds available to kill, this news from Bettws will be met with angst and fear from an industry under increasing pressure to survive.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Lets hope that the pheasant/red leg/duck industry show some responsibility here. I, personally, hold them part responsible for the expotential spread of Lyme’s Disease throughout the country as they illustrated no motivation to get to grips with Kurtenbach’s 1998 study conclusion where he and his fellow researchers (one of them Dr. Andrew Hoodless, now Head of Wetland Research at the GWCT) said,
“We conclude that pheasants are reservoir competent for Lyme borreliosis spirochetes and potentially play an important role in the maintenance of B. burgdorferi s.l. in England and Wales.”
Hopefully the situation will be closely monitored by representatives of Conservation Bodies with no ties to either the pheasant industry or the Government.
Our whole avian and mammalian population could be endangered.
The infection which ended my career is Lyme Disease. Can you please get it right.
See also TBE, which arrived in the New Forest a few years ago where a German on holiday was infected. She was tested back home and that information was shared on a European website, otherwise we may never have known. It may have arrived in imported game birds.
When the testing of marketed birds for lead next happens, perhaps a lab will include testing for infections?
You can find the research paper and the conclusion reached here, SOG,
https://www.gwct.org.uk/research/scientific-publications/1990-99/1998/kurtenbach1998a/
To my knowledge it has not been retracted
If anyone seeks information, I suggest this source for Lyme Disease
https://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/
Surely this obscene industry needs to be closed down on biosecurity grounds alone. It is unbelievable that with avian flu around millions of these birds would have been spread around our counties.
so i suppose you would want to close down all chicken rearing facilitys as well, your comment is nothing less than crass stupidity
It would be a big ask to restructure the human food chain overnight – such as it is, but is it so unreasonable for this hobby to moderate itself for a year to see what happens regards bird flu? Guns could try a bit of rough shooting instead this season, or is it the case that most have little interest in doing anything other than dressing up, gorging themselves with breakfast, lunch & dinner in between being transported to a few yards off their pegs to mindlessly fill the sky with lead?
We have all seen released chickens being a hazard on roads, some have noticed them spreading onto Wildlife Trust lands. The sooner they are restricted, the better for native wildlife. You are so right.
The special report on climate change and land by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) describes plant-based diets as a major opportunity for mitigating and adapting to climate change ― and includes a policy recommendation to reduce meat consumption..
https://www.nature.com › news
Eat less meat: UN climate-change report calls for change to human diet
Good on Eyrl!
I’m all for closing down none native game bird shoots. Pheasants should not be released into the UK countryside. Rearing Bird’s for sport is different to rearing Bird’s for food. To me your comment is the crass stupidity one
Try basing your comments on facts not your ignorant preduces.
It has been spread 98% by wild birds have done any research on the subject?
Pheasants as you know become wild birds on release ( or any other situation to suit !) so does your research indicate which species of wild birds? Lots of roadkill and other dead Pheasants are scavenged by birds and mammals. Banning release of all these reared birds will greatly reduce risk of avian flu. Impose a ban now.
“Try basing your comments on facts not your ignorant preduces (sic).”
But then you write:
“It has been spread 98% by wild birds have done any research on the subject?”
You have just made that figure up. No research supports it. So much for ‘facts’.
We all know that wild birds can transmit it, but there has been absolutely no study to put any sort of figure to it.
However, we also know that DEFRA granted exemption for the shooting industry to release intensively-reared game birds into AIPZs under certain conditions. Something not extended to poultry farmers.
Presumably, as in outbreaks that occurred in England, within the poultry industry over winter, all birds on the infected site will have to be destroyed.
I would expect so(?) But the industry was allowed considerable leeway to continue releasing captive bred game birds last year in England…
From https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bird-flu-rules-if-you-keep-game-birds
“You *can* release game birds into the wild in an AIPZ (Avian Influenza Prevention Zone) in areas:
without housing measures
where no disease control zones are in force”
and
“In a disease control zone or AIPZ:
you can continue to feed and water released game birds except within 500m of a premises where poultry or other captive birds are kept
you should minimise the chance of other wild birds accessing your released birds’ food and water”
I’d say both exemptions were highly dangerous and irresponsible. They even allowed the catching up of game birds within the shooting season (but not outside of it) with some conditions.
I do not believe such largesse was extended to organic poultry farmers, for example (a national compulsory housing order was imposed on 7th November 2022 across England and Wales for all poultry)
It’s a natural occurrence been in the wild longer than you or me they haven’t made it themselves.its came from wild birds to the pens.just like it has been doing the rounds at a lot of wild fowl sanctuaries due to feeding concentrations as it spreads from bird to bird.gull colonies are suffering as we type.lets not make scape goats for our moral compasses.
It’s a well known fact that a variety of anti-biotics have been used in intensive fowl raising facilities to attempt eradicate disease and increase profit. Sometimes combinations of anti-biotics were used. If these fail to kill off the bacteria completely then the rate of mutations rise as does the resistance. When anti-biotic restiant mutations hit wild population the potential to create super-bugs, as we are witnessing now, increases expotentially because the immune systems of the wild birds have previously has no exposure to ANY anti-biotic and the effect on them is far more devastating and lethal.
Let not shut down enquiries in this area due to false sensitivities as, given the facts of the matter, this is exactly where our moral compass should be directing us to search.
“It’s a well known fact that a variety of anti-biotics have been used in intensive fowl raising facilities to attempt eradicate disease and increase profit….”
Irrelevant. H5N1 is a highly pathogenic virus. It kills human beings quickly, with a death rate of around 60%.
It does not – typically of influenza-type viruses – just cause respiratory illness, but passes directly from the nose to the brain where patients succumb to coma and inflammation of the brain (encephalitis).
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0900096106#:~:text=In%20recent%20times%2C%20poultry%20(4,to%20motor%20disturbances%20to%20coma.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5343125/#:~:text=Background%3A%20Acute%20influenza%2Dassociated%20encephalopathy,symptoms%20and%20validated%20diagnostic%20criteria.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36093829/#:~:text=Highly%20pathogenic%20avian%20influenza%20viruses,caused%20by%20the%20H5N6%20virus.
If you watch water birds infected with this virus you can clearly see severe neurological distress signs:-(
“It’s a natural occurrence been in the wild longer than you or me…”
Not true.
H5N1 was first spotted in 1996 in southern China and Hong Kong. The first transmission to people happened in 1997 when 18 people were infected, and six deaths were confirmed.
From the WHO: “Globally, from January 2003 to 26 January 2023, there have been 868 cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus reported from 21 countries. Of these 868 cases, 457 were fatal (death rate of 53%).”
But there were human cases before 2003…
I would not fancy being any worker at Bettws Hall:-(
It is yet another virus mutation emanating from the appalling animal husbandry in China.
I wonder where this game farm sourced it’s laying stock (of pheasants) from? Did they overwinter their own stocks (costly & tedious) or buy in birds “caught up” on Estates (while their ‘Schrödinger’s pheasant’ status would be that they were nominally being classed as wild birds)? I lost off following the discussion within the shooting media as to whether catching-up was either advisable or even legal under bird-flu restrictions. At my last look, nobody had an authoritative view on this but I maybe missed some DEFRA guidance given out.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bird-flu-rules-if-you-keep-game-birds#catching-up-game-birds
Catching up game birds
You cannot catch up game birds from the wild outside the shooting season for the species.
Wild game birds caught up in the open season must not be moved for at least 21 days from the date of catching up. You must keep a record of both the:
* date of catching up
* number of birds caught up each day
The 21 day rule applies from the date the last bird was caught up or the date the last bird arrives at the premises where they’ll be kept.
For more details check the updated AIPZ declaration.
If you bring caught up game birds together from more than one location you must follow the rules for bird gatherings.
Once caught up, previously wild game birds are classed as poultry. They are subject to all the same bird flu rules as other poultry.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bird-flu-avian-influenza-housing-your-birds-safely#welfare-of-ducks-geese-and-game-birds
Welfare of ducks, geese and game birds
If you’re in a protection zone or captive bird (monitoring) controlled zone you must house ducks, geese and game birds when possible.
If this is not practical, keep them in fully netted areas.
If you cannot house or fully net an outdoor bird area because of unavoidable welfare concerns, you must:
* feed and water them undercover
* move them away from large bodies of water that attract wildfowl
* take steps to discourage wild birds
You must also speak to your private vet and put in writing:
* why you cannot house your birds
* the steps you are taking to protect them from bird flu
“At my last look, nobody had an authoritative view on this but I maybe missed some DEFRA guidance given out.”
Also from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bird-flu-rules-if-you-keep-game-birds
“You cannot catch up game birds from the wild outside the shooting season for the species.
Wild game birds caught up in the open season must not be moved for at least 21 days from the date of catching up. You must keep a record of both the:
date of catching up
number of birds caught up each day
The 21 day rule applies from the date the last bird was caught up or the date the last bird arrives at the premises where they’ll be kept.
For more details check the updated AIPZ declaration.
If you bring caught up game birds together from more than one location you must follow the rules for bird gatherings.
Once caught up, previously wild game birds are classed as poultry. They are subject to all the same bird flu rules as other poultry.”
Thanks Lizzbusy and Keith. Daft thing is I now remember reading the blog on it (on here). Evidently I just didn’t absorb the fact that it was the final word from DEFRA and I must have thought to myself there will likely be more to come. They have allowed a lot to ride on the integrity, diligence and logistical / organisational skills of the game farmers and the estates they will take in from, many of the latter being the most likely to fudge the guidance because they think they know better / haven’t got the time.
A good point. This is an industry which thanks to the criminal activities of some of it’s adherents already engages in the illegal persecution of birds of prey, so I very much doubt whether the rules regarding “catching up” game birds is strictly followed by everyone involved. This episode is yet more evidence as to why the game shooting industry needs to be be properly regulated, with a robust monitoring scheme to ensure compliance. As this establishment in Wales highlights, game shooting is not a few people simply going out into the countryside to shoot a few wild birds. It is big business, where money can be made or lost, and once money is involved, so arrives human greed, which will lead some to engage in all sorts of activities, legal or otherwise to maximise their profits!
I’m not surprised, biohazard measures are xxxxx xxxxx. Shut this place down for good.
[Ed: you’ll need to provide supportive evidence before that can be published here]
I would think all of the birds on the breeding farm will have to be killed. If not the chicken industry that has had to do this will have questions for the authorities in charge.
if you believe the fact you cant catch bird out the shooting season , you are very naive.
Is that supposed to be English?
They are still sending out day old chicks. All over the UK and to Ireland. They are advertising partridges available tomorrow (2nd May)
Thanks, Percy Pig. If you have evidence of this, I suggest you contact the Office of the Chief Veterinary Officer (Wales) and check to see whether the movements have been licensed by a veterinary inspector.
There should be contact details on the Welsh Gov website. In haste…I don’t have the time to look today.
i dont understand, how they can continue to do it ? A place near bwlch-y-ffridd had the same problem last year, and they were shut down for 12 months. All the hens and cocks are euthanasia and xxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx. xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx but this is not the point… bird flu is a disease can be spread by wind, birds, humans, animals.. when you have it , you got it..and an eradication of everything with empty premisces for a while will be the solution…
“bird flu is a disease can be spread by wind, birds, humans, animals.. ”
What makes you think it can be spread by the wind?
“when you have it , you got it..and an eradication of everything with empty premisces (sic) for a while will be the solution…”
So, you don’t believe in vaccination, then?
This outbreak can not be compared gull colonies or wild bird sanctuaries, as this establishment is in existence simply to provide game birds to an industry already tarnished by criminal activity through raptor persecution and other dubious methods of land and wildlife management.
Pheasants and red Legged partridge are not a native species to the UK, yet are released every year in their millions into the countryside where there is now growing evidence that their presence is detrimental to native UK wildlife. Hence, the DEFRA’s decision to limit the density at which these birds can be released near to environmentally sensitive sites such as SSSI’s, as well as requiring those releasing the birds to have a licence.
Unlike a poultry farm which serves as a valuable source of food production for the nation, this hatchery provides game birds to a small section of society whose pastime is shooting. As has been highlighted on this blog, many game birds don’t even end up as food, but are disposed of, often illegally dumped in the countryside.
Whilst avian flu could have entered the hatchery from a number of different sources, the fact that so many birds are confined together will no doubt have enabled the virus to spread rapidly, and the birds will now have become a reservoir for the virus.
Whilst avian flu remains a problem, it would be common sense to completely ban the release of non native birds into the UK countryside, often in densities which simply enable the virus to spread further into the wild population.
It will be interesting to see the shooting industry’s take on this issue, as many of the umbrella organisations promote conservation of wild birds as one of the benefits of game bird shooting. Surely, it can’t help wild bird conservation if non native species which are potential hosts for avian flu are released into the countryside?
I would be very careful about the comments you make from your obvious bias.
I am a shepherd and i breed schedule 3 and 4 birds and poultry.
The extreme end of raptorphiles such as yourself come out with your usual biased slant.
The wildfowl and wetlands trust has visitor centres and captive collections. These captive collections have NOT been netted over as all game farms, waterfowl and poultry breeders have too.
Wild birds fly in get fed while the captive birds are being fed.
They then can spread the virus at will locally, Also visitors come walk around with biosecurity measures which are at best laughable and can spread the virus that way.
So large breeding and feeding stations are not enclosed! Unlike game and poultry in the UK.
The risks posed by these centres you appear to dismiss?
As a songbird breeder im used to some of the extreme end of the raptorphiles like you.
I breed black redstarts, Hawfinches, Yellow hammers and snow buntings. I have seen what unrestricted sparrowhawks have done to songbird populations.
36,000 pairs of sparrowhawks need approx 90,000 quarry species per day thats 500,000 birds a week.
Then when breeding that trebles we lose approx 36 million song birds birds a year to sparrowhawks alone. As you tell racing pigeon people they only lose 1% to sparrowhawks the figures are plain to see but you appear not to accept the fact?
Something some of the extreme raptorphiles cannot appear to accept?
Bird flu has been about for years but this strain has been spread on the whole now by wild birds fact!
So get off your anti shooting, anti game farming and anti anything high horse.
Address the truth and stop acting like a village gossip bird flu is killing ALL TYPES OF BIRDS.
We need to work together not at odds with one another and some of you extreme raptorphiles wonder why we ignore your ignorance!
Stick to the facts and not your prejudice which is sadly clear for to see.
Nothing said by any of you about waterfowl losses and wildbird losses which have been up the east coast along the migration routes.
One incident in Wales and the usual predictable prejudiced reponse.
I suggest do as i do in my job use your eyes and ears in proportion to your mouth.
On breeding all my birds are just starting to show interest the cold spring is holding back the wold and captive bred songbirds.
Yawn…
Despite the fact that it has precisely nothing to do with the subject of this particular thread, your choice to clumsily shoehorn your pet theories on the perceived effects of predation into your post says it all.
Even though your ridiculous use of (and over-reliance on) the term “raptorphiles” exposes your agenda immediately, you then remove all doubt regarding your bigotry, with a well-worn, evidence-free tirade against Sparrowhawks.
As all real conservationists have been aware for decades, the claims which you parrot, are a complete fiction, yet you have the stunning hypocrisy to accuse others of “prejudice” and “bias”. You really are fooling no-one with such utter tripe.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.1998.0540
https://www.bto.org/about-bto/press-releases/are-predators-blame-songbird-declines
“The wildfowl and wetlands trust has visitor centres and captive collections. These captive collections have NOT been netted over as all game farms, waterfowl and poultry breeders have too”
The WWT centres do not release their captive collections into the wild (they wouldn’t be captive, otherwise). However, game farms were allowed to release their game birds during the world-wide spread of bird-flu to the UK under certain conditions.
“The risks posed by these centres you appear to dismiss?”
No. The risks are more ‘to’ those centres, not ‘by’ them. The WWT do not release their captive collections into the wild.
I don’t really think that Mr Holmes gives a toss about wild birds, Keith. He certainly doesn’t care for the truth. It’s evident that he’s just another of the poorly educated little crew who vehemently hate raptors (because they occasionally visit his caged collections?), but have no understanding of population ecology. He, like others of his persuasion, is just here to have a pop, but (as is blindingly obvious) he hasn’t got any ammo! All he can do is dish out childish labels like “raptorphile”, which has echoes of an old phrase used by 1970s racists when intelligent people challenged their stupidity.
Thank you for your reply, however I would suggest readers need to be very careful of your comments!
I note you make reference to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.- A quick read of their internet pages suggests that this organisation has been taking their responsibilities regarding avian flu very seriously, and where appropriate closed centres or restricted visitor access in accordance with government guidelines.
Can you provide evidence that all game farms and waterfowl breeders have netted over as required, as you suggest? Have you visited each and every game farm or breeder to ensure compliance, or are your comments just a fanciful notion?
Where is your evidence that sparrow hawks have decimated song bird populations?
Such a comment would seem contrary to scientific evidence.
The RSPB report that ” Long-term scientific studies have shown that sparrow hawks generally have no or little impact on songbird populations.”
It should be remembered that sparrow hawks have existed alongside song birds for thousands of years without decimating populations.
All the latest scientific research has clearly indicated that modern farming methods, the inappropriate use of pest and herbicides, and habitat loss are the main causes of the massive decline in songbird populations across the UK.
This is the view published by DEFRA following detailed studies by the British Trust for Ornithology, RSPB and Joint Nature Conservation Committee. – Are you suggesting that these organisations are nothing but “village gossips”?
These are facts, facts you seem to have completely ignored, but perhaps indicative of your own bias and ignorance?
You also seem to clearly miss the point that loses of wild bird populations to naturally occurring avian flu is completely different to the set of circumstances of an avian flu outbreak in game hatchery, where non native bird species are reared in close confinement with the purpose of realising millions of these birds into the wild, where they again will be in an unnatural dense population on a shooting estate where they have the potential to act as a reservoir for the virus.
I think we all acknowledge the effects of avian flu on the nations wild bird populations, but as this is naturally occurring and something over which we have little control, then what more can be said?
We have no or little control over wild birds and where they choose to fly.
We do have control over whether to permit the release of millions of non native birds reared in a hatchery into the countryside.
There is nothing extreme about wanting to halt the release of these birds at a time when avian flu is such a problem in the wild bird population, and where the release of such birds could make the avian flu problem even worse.
There is also nothing extreme about wanting to end the illegal persecution of raptors, – birds which are protected by law. Laws which were passed in parliament by a democratically elected government.
Neither is there anything extreme in understanding the evidence which links the persecution of raptors to a group of criminals who operate within the game shooting industry, something which is clearly evidenced by the the number of police investigations or convictions in the courts.
Nature and wildlife in Britain are in massive decline and the WWF report that UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world with many species facing extinction.
In addition to all the man made perils our native wildlife faces, it now has to contend with the added pressure of climate change.
What nature doesn’t need is criminal persecution, or further poor or bad countryside / coastal / habitat management.
There is nothing extreme about people standing up for nature and giving nature a voice.
The fact that voice may jar with your own blighted, ignorant and biased understanding of nature is irrelevant.
I would suggest you look at the facts rather than playing the “village idiot” and trying to persuade the many educated and well informed readers of this blog that what you write is anything other than nonsense.
You are right that in order to protect the nations wildlife, and stop the criminal persecution of birds of prey then all those involved do need to work together.
But what makes that very difficult is the entrenched ignorance of some and reluctance to acknowledge and deal with the embedded criminality within certain groups who control and manage some of the countryside.