Sampling: Bird flu causes seagull deaths

During the late spring, the Stockholm area was also affected by bird flu, when several reports of sick and dead laughing gulls came in from Råstasjön in Solna and Lötsjön in Sundbyberg. Now also gull colonies in Kalmar have been affected, when up to 1,000 birds died near Kalmar castle.

“The reason is that there is now a bird flu variant circulating that is particularly well adapted to seagulls, combined with the fact that laughing gulls nest and live closely in colonies. There may be a risk of spreading to surrounding areas and it is therefore important to also protect poultry from infection “, says Karl Ståhl, state epizootologist at SVA in a press release.