The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland is encouraging the public not to pick up or touch any dead or injured wild birds, amid concerns about bird flu.

The department has said that Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 - bird flu - is currently circulating in wild birds, especially breeding seabirds around the UK’s coasts, causing significant mortality in some species.

To date, there has been only one confirmed HPAI seabird death in Northern Ireland. However, dead seabirds have been removed from Rathlin Island for testing, and others have been very recently reported on the north coast.

There remains the potential for this situation to deteriorate, and so the public using coastal areas over the coming weeks are reminded of the following advice:

Current advice from the Public Health Agency is not to touch or pick up dead birds.  However, if dead birds need to be disposed of:

DAERA has urged people to make sure to wash your hands thoroughly with soap after coming into contact with any animal and do not touch any sick or dead birds.

The department added that it is working with stakeholders and has taken proactive measures to improve biosecurity at seabird breeding colonies, and continues to monitor the situation.

In April of this year, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) announced the lifting of the legal requirement to confine and house poultry and other birds as a precautionary measure against avian influenza (bird flu)

The legislation requiring the precautionary confinement of birds was introduced on November 22, 2021, to mitigate the risk of bird flu in poultry.

Removing the requirement to confine birds meant that all poultry and bird owners could allow their birds access to open areas.