Mass slaughter in UK - supermarkets are running out of eggs and poultry

Customers at Ginger Pig on Abbeville Road in south-west London have to forego turkey for their Christmas roast. Duck and goose are also missing from the range, as is 100-day chicken, a traditional English free-range variety.

The noble butcher, who runs eight shops in London, has no choice: at the end of October, the poultry farm, with which the company has been working for over 20 years, was infected with bird flu. The entire stock had to be slaughtered. "But we're sure you'll also impress your guests during the festive season with succulent roast pork, exquisitely decorated Beef Wellington or our sumptuous selection of French hens," a note in the store suggests alternatives.

Ginger Pig is not an isolated case. Butchers across the country are proposing alternatives for Christmas feasts. Poultry is also becoming scarce in the supermarkets. Waitrose does not stock duck breast or drumsticks. At Asda and Lidl, the sale of eggs is rationed, other retailers are considering similar steps. The first hospitality companies are looking for alternatives to breakfast eggs.

The H5N1 bird flu pathogen has been raging on the island for months, and the situation has worsened significantly in recent weeks. "We are facing the largest outbreak of bird flu this year and are seeing a rapid increase in the number of cases on commercial and backyard poultry farms across England," said Christine Middlemiss, Chief Veterinary Officer.

According to data from the industry association British Poultry Council, more than 40 percent of free-range turkeys have already been slaughtered on farms in recent weeks because of H5N1 outbreaks. The APHA laboratory in Weybridge, which tests poultry for bird flu, reported a 600 percent increase in positive samples earlier this month.

The pathogen has become a major problem not only in Great Britain. In North America, vendors warn that traditional Thanksgiving turkey prices are skyrocketing because supply is so scarce. In Europe, the Netherlands and France are currently reporting new diseases again and again. By the beginning of the month, 50 million birds had been slaughtered on farms and for breeding purposes in Europe.

There is no end in sight to the devastating outbreak. Last Thursday alone, more than 100,000 animals had to be slaughtered in Scotland alone after infections were reported on three farms.

What robs butchers of choice and interferes with home cooks planning the Christmas menu has become an existential threat to poultry farmers across the country. He wouldn't wish the experience on anyone, Steve Childerhouse told the Guardian. At the end of September, the farmer from Attleborough, Norfolk, had to slaughter his entire stock, 11,000 free-range turkeys and 2,500 geese, all earmarked for the Christmas shopping season.

"I've never seen anything like it and I don't want to experience it again." He has been in poultry farming for almost 40 years and started as a teenager. Now he will probably give up and is looking for another job.

Avian influenza outbreaks have occurred in Africa, Asia and Europe since the 19th century. For a long time, the disease was mainly observed in breeding poultry. Containment worked relatively quickly by slaughtering the stock. It's different with H5N1. The virus variant, which first appeared around two decades ago, is also spreading rapidly in wild birds and is therefore much more difficult to get a grip on.

"Unfortunately, we expect the number of cases to continue to rise in the coming months as migratory birds return to the UK who may be ill and spreading the disease in our flocks," said veterinarian Middlemiss.

Hundreds of terns, gannets and skuas have fallen victim to the virus over the summer months along the UK coast. More than 30 dead ducks, swans and songbirds have been found in London's Hyde Park and adjacent Kensington Gardens since early November.

One of the core of the problem is breeding. "Poultry is often [...] kept in confined spaces where diseases can be transmitted quickly," said Devi Sridhar, professor of health economics at the University of Edinburgh. In this environment, more aggressive versions of a virus could develop.

From a medical point of view, it is urgently necessary to keep this under control. So far, people have only been infected in a few exceptional cases. But a mutation that allows the virus to jump more easily is very possible, Sridhar warned.

In order to limit the spread, the British authorities have imposed a kind of curfew on poultry stocks and breeding birds. Since November 7th, they have to be kept indoors or at least in such a way that no contact with other poultry is possible.

The nine ravens in the Tower of London are also affected. The animals, which are looked after by their own raven master, have been housed in an enclosure ever since. After all, according to a prophecy, the future of the kingdom depends on the animals whose wings are clipped to prevent them from flying away. According to legend from the days of Charles II in the 15th century, it will break, the tower will crumble, unless at least six ravens live on the site.

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