{"id":116303,"date":"2025-11-03T21:45:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T21:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116303\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T21:45:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T21:45:20","slug":"bird-flu-found-at-rspb-nature-reserve-on-the-somerset-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116303\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu found at RSPB nature reserve on the Somerset Levels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The RSPB has closed a hide at one of its nature reserves after a number of cases of bird flu were identified.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The charity confirmed Canada Geese and Mute Swans at Ham Wall, near Glastonbury in Somerset, were found to be carrying the disease, though numbers were &#8220;relatively low&#8221;, it said, with fewer than 20 cases identified in eight weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">None of the birds were found in public areas, so the reserve remains open except for the Avalon Hide. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;This is a known Barn Owl feeding site which could bring people into close proximity with the virus due to a natural build up of faeces, pellets, and feathers in and around the hide,&#8221; said a spokesperson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Visitors to the site have been asked to report any dead or dying birds or mammals to staff and not to touch or attempt to move them.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">People are also asked to clean footwear thoroughly and wash their hands after visiting the reserve and before drinking or eating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The charity warned visitors to keep an eye on signage in case it closes other areas of the reserve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The RSPB has closed a hide at one of its nature reserves after a number of cases of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-116303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}