Not only for the birds
SUCH are the solecisms of humans. We have anguished over Covid-19, but the pandemic that is devastating a fellow creature has largely gone unacknowledged. We refer to avian flu: the UK is currently experiencing its largest outbreak ever of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, with nearly five million birds—and counting—reported dead so far this year. Scientists expect infections to multiply over the winter. As a biosecurity measure, England’s domestic birds find themselves confined, with free-range keepers scratching their heads over ways to entertain feathered charges that formerly scratched about in the open pulling worms. (A tip to poultry people: lettuce is cat-nip to fowl and a hard, roundish lettuce, such as gem, moves entertainingly when picked at—peck and roll, as it were.) Although few would equate avian life with human life, we…
