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Bird ‘ringing’ and the visitation of seabird colonies by CIBRS licence holders in Alderney has been stopped, after further outbreaks of avian flu have been recorded along the continental coastline.
Bird ringing is the act of placing a lightweight metal ring around a bird’s leg to help identify them and track their movements.
In Alderney its done by people licenced by the Channel Islands Bird Ringing Scheme (CIBRS). However, due to the increased prevalence of avian flu, the Chairman of the group has announced that all ringing should stop “with immediate effect”.
Pictured: Bird ringing helps people track and protect various bird species.
“Developments over the last week have seen the avian flu virus steadily increasing and moving southwards in England and further outbreaks have occurred along the continental coastline,” said John Horton.
“The ABO have been carefully monitoring the situation and thus far cancelled all scheduled visits to the colonies of seabirds on Alderneys Islets in the hope that the numbers of cases in this outbreak nationally decrease, sadly quite the opposite has been the case.
“The CIBRS committee have agreed that with immediate effect that all CIBRS licence holders must not visit seabird colonies or ring any seabirds until further notice.
"The virus is easily and quickly spread via birds' faeces so walking through any seabird colony, especially concentrated colonies like Gannets would spread the virus putting birds at unnecessary risk. There are also potentially serious public health implications. To go ahead with seabird ringing research work in the current circumstances would certainly attract negative attention and rightly so, there are no local cases to date but should there be an outbreak of avain flu this action will ensure we avoid any scrutiny, prioritising the welfare of the birds and public safety.”
Mr Horton said it was an inevitable decision but disappointing, since a lot of valuable date will be lost this year.
States of Alderney issues bird flu strategy advice
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