Avian Flu - Threat to Rare Birds

Avian Flu carrying deadly H5N1 virus is threatening to push some of the world's rarest birds towards extinction. Birds such as the aquatic warbler, the Dalmatian pelican, the marbled teal, the slender-billed curlew and the spoon-billed sandpiper are particularly susceptible. 10 percent of the world’s population of wild bar-headed goose died in a recent bird flu outbreak in China.

Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) warned that any attempts to cull wildfowl suspected of carrying the disease could simply scatter the virus more widely by driving flocks away from their normal routes, doing more harm than good.