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| Blue tit - this bird, happily, is healthy |
A SICKNESS with symptoms similar to Covid-19 in humans has claimed the lives of thousands of blue tits in Germany.
Since the start of the month, upwards of 12,000 birds - most in the west of the country - have been found dead or dying.
Symptoms are said to include breathing problems and loss of appetite, with pneumonia ensuing.
Initial laboratory tests indicate that the birds are succumbing to a bacterial infection, Suttonella ornithocola
Since as far back as the 1990s, the condition - or one like it - is known to have affected birds in the UK likewise, but not to the same extent.
However, members of the public in this country are being urged to report any sick or dead blue tits through Garden Wildlife Health, a monitoring project run between the Zoological Society of London, the British Trust for Ornithology, Froglife and the RSPB.
The website is: www.gardenwildlifehealth.org
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