Tenth of Alderney's gannet chick population dead after bird flu outbreak

At least 10% of Alderney's population of gannet chicks has died in the space of just three weeks, following an outbreak of avian flu.

The Alderney Wildlife Trust says hundreds of birds have already died as a result of the disease and there is a further risk to thousands more.

Over the same three-week period, more than 50 dead birds have been recorded at sea - an occurrence which the Trust says would normally be rare.

The news comes less than a week after the first case of avian flu was confirmed in a chicken in Alderney, with the whole island being placed under a 'prevention zone'.

The Alderney Wildlife Trust said: "Whilst the impacts of HPAI (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza) are devastating and affect wild bird populations which are already experiencing extreme pressures, Alderney is in a unique situation.

"The seabird recording work undertaken over the last 15 years, especially on the Island’s gannets, will enable us to chart the progress of this disease and provide the findings from this work to the wider scientific community.

"With global seabird populations under such threat, it is vital that we work to build up the resilience required to bounce back from these incidences – and so we do not lose this vital component of our ecosystem."

Alderney is home to almost 1% of the island's global gannet population, playing home to almost 6,000 birds between February and September each year.

The colony has been monitored closely over the past 18 years, after Alderney was designated as a RAMSAR site in 2004.

Islanders are being asked to:

• Report any sightings to the States Vet and record the sighting on the Alderney Wildlife Trust's website.

• Keep poultry safe by ensuring the birds are housed and cannot interact with wild birds, reporting any sick birds immediately.