Bird flu virus spreading in UK could be worst yet, expert warns farmers 18 hours ago Share Save Malcolm Prior BBC News rural affairs producer Share Save PA Media Bird flu outbreaks across UK farms has led to a mandatory housing order being brought in The bird flu virus infecting farm flocks across the UK could be the most infectious yet, the government's former top expert in avian virology has warned. The Pirbright Institute's Professor Ian Brown, formerly director of science at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), said farmers should be "prepared for the worst". With a national mandatory housing order brought into force in England on Thursday, one free-range egg producer in Wiltshire told the BBC she felt "terrible" bringing her 32,000 hens inside but an outbreak would be "disastrous". The government said the mandatory housing order would "bring the rates of infection down from the high we are currently experiencing". The Pirbright Institute Professor Ian Brown warned that the virus could mutate so needs to be closely monitored So far this season - which began in October - there have been 26 cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 on farms across the UK, with 22 in England alone. Whole flocks have to be culled when an outbreak occurs. Professor Brown told the BBC that the current virus was "as super-infectious as any high pathogenicity avian influenza we've ever seen". He added that farmers should now "prepare for the worst, I'm afraid". "We had a very, very serious epidemic between 2021 and 2023 - in excess of 350 outbreaks in the UK. That's off the scale," he explained. "Now, it's really, really difficult to state what the final size of this outbreak would be, but the early signals are not great. " He added that the threat level meant the poultry industry needed to "batten the hatches down, review their biosecurity and redouble their efforts". Sarah Godwin Despite bringing 32,000 free-range hens inside, farmer Sarah Godwin remains "very nervous" Sarah Godwin runs a mixed egg, arable and dairy family farm near North Wraxall, in Wiltshire, with her husband and brother-in-law. Her 32,000-laying hens would normally be outdoors for most of the day. They now have to be kept in their barns around the clock. We would love to see them out but it is just a necessary evil because the risk of them catching avian influenza is so high and the consequences are so disastrous for a producer, and for the hens as well," she explained. But despite bringing the hens inside and putting in place strict biosecurity measures, Mrs Godwin remains "very nervous". She said: "It only takes a tiny, tiny bit of contaminated muck from a wild bird or something that's been brought into the shed on somebody's boots. "It's literally grammes that can infect the whole flock. And at that point, the whole flock has to be culled
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