ProMED-Mail reported on a diagnosis of avian influenza among diverse and widely separated colonies of seabirds including the Isle of Man, County Wexford in the Republic of Ireland and Aberdeenshire in Scotland.

Outbreaks among free living birds, backyard farms and commercial poultry flocks followed exposure to the 2.3.4.4b clade of avian influenza virus that has impacted Africa and Eurasia since 2020 and was responsible for the North America epornitic last year. 

The fact that the virus is persisting in wild bird populations during breeding suggests dissemination in the fall. North America faces the possibility of a repeat of trans-Atlantic movement of the virus from the northern isles of Scotland, westward through Iceland and Greenland and thence to the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia as in December 2021.