A report on ProMED Mail confirms that avian influenza, highly pathogenic strain H5N5, was isolated from wild geese and swans near the city of Newport in Wales.  Approximately 150 cases of avian influenza have been reported in migratory birds across the U.K. since the beginning of November 2020.

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA, equivalent to USDA) issued a warning to confine commercial poultry in both England and Wales and to follow enhanced biosecurity.

An unfortunate note is that all birds in a rescue center in Worcestershire were humanely euthanized on December 13th. Since most free-living birds are transitory carriers of avian influenza and are not generally affected clinically, it may have been appropriate, given the opportunity to maintain strict quarantine, to have allowed the birds to transition through the the stage of shedding virus without the need for them to have been destroyed.