Work to understand how avian influenza behaves in wild bird and mammal populations will be accelerated with the launch of a new £2.3 million research consortium it has been announced today (27 August).

Scientists from the UK’s world leading Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA), alongside the British Trust for Ornithology, RSPB, University of Edinburgh and NatureScot, will collect and analyse samples from a range of bird and mammal populations to better understand how the virus behaves and fill current gaps in understanding about its transmission within wild birds, as well as the wider risks to mammals.

The most recent outbreaks of the current H5N1 strain of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI), commonly known as bird flu, were the largest ever in the UK and devastated wild bird populations including seabirds such as gannets and black-headed gulls. This strain has also infected numerous species of wild mammals around the world, including otters and foxes in Great Britain.