Sussex volunteers struggling to cope with influx of sick gulls following bird flu outbreak

• Video report by Malcom Shaw

Volunteers in Sussex say they are struggling to cope with an influx of sick and injured seagulls after wildlife rescue centres stopped taking them for fear of spreading avian flu.

Many gulls - suffering from other conditions - are now being looked after in people's homes and gardens.

Justin King belongs to a group of volunteers who are caring for scores of sick and injured seabirds.  He says they desperately need more help.

Justin said: "It has been total and utter chaos, completely unmanageable. Totally out of control with very little support other than the volunteers that work with me and with other people. We have been our own support network through this.

"Many of them are new, they came with good intentions to help during this season and suddenly they are thrown into this bird flu epidemic. Many of them have not been able to take it and have just gone."

The risk to humans from the virus is very low.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), said: "The advice from the UK Health Security Agency and Animal and Plant Health Agency is that the public, including volunteers, should not touch or pick up any visibly sick birds that they find. This is important in order to protect the public from the risk of avian influenza and to minimise the risk of spreading the disease."

Helen Ford fosters gulls at her home in Piddinghoe. She says any new birds are carefully quarantined until it is clear they are free from avian flu. 

She said: "I am compelled to do it because it's difficult to leave creatures to suffer, so if I can help I will.

"If there isn't anywhere else for them to go, if I can have them here then I will."

The volunteers stress that any birds they find with symptoms of avian flu are taken to the vets to be put to sleep. 

Gulls with other illnesses and injuries that have been nursed back to health are released into the wild where they belong.