Pheasant farming in the UK is closing or drastically reduced this year due to bird import bans following an outbreak of bird flu.
Much of the game shot in the country is imported from production farms in Europe. Experts said the practice must be stopped or reduced as it risks the spread of disease and has worrying implications for local wildlife and biodiversity.
Just under 50 million pheasants are typically released each year from continental farms. A recent study suggests that at their peak in August each year, non-native common pheasants and red-legged partridges make up around half of all wild bird biomass in Britain. The annual shooting season begins on October 1.
Geoff Knott, director for central and eastern England at the RSPB, said: “Most importantly from our perspective, the avian flu situation highlights the risks of bringing in and releasing millions of birds into the British countryside with very little oversight. It’s a very, very unregulated industry and it’s something that needs to be looked at really seriously.
He called for more regulations on shoots. “There are inherent risks in bringing in so many birds and releasing them into the countryside. There is a need to look at greater regulation of the industry to ensure we are not putting local wildlife at risk. Properties are not required to report how many people they bring in, release, how many are shot.
Mark Avery, who runs nature campaign group Wild Justice, said: “This is a wake-up call for shooting. Importing tens of millions of non-native pheasants is hardly traditional or sustainable. The environment will benefit – all these game birds are harming our native species. Pheasants eat snakes and lizards and damage vegetation. Fewer game birds is a respite for local wildlife.”
Shooting farms are introducing measures, including more on-site farming of game, to make the sector more resilient to import bans.
Glyn Evans, Head of Game and Gundogs at the British Shooting and Conservation Association (BASC), said: “For a number of reasons, such as the climate, parts of France are ideal for game farming and the production of pheasant and partridge eggs. However, an outbreak of bird flu in the main game growing regions at a critical time of such production led to movement restrictions. The resulting impact on UK game shooting this year will be nothing short of significant.
“This level of disruption will vary between different shoots. For example, those who hatch and raise their own birds inside will be largely unaffected, while others may continue with reduced plans and we have heard of shoots who have made the difficult decision not to continue this year.’
He said reducing shooting would hit the economy in rural areas, including hotels, pubs and restaurants near shooting ranges.
“This is not the first challenge we have faced, and it will not be the last. As bird flu becomes more prevalent, shoots will be looking at their supply chains and how to future-proof them,” Evans added.
This year’s bird flu outbreak is the longest and largest ever seen in the UK and many parts of Europe. The disease not only infects farmed birds, but also affects vulnerable populations of endangered birds, which worries conservationists.
The disease, highly contagious in birds, began in commercial goose farms in Asia in 1996, spreading to poultry farms and then to wild birds.
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