#13,053
Although DEFRA hasn't updated their website yet, yesterday the OIE published the following notification of the first occurrence of HPAI H5N6 in the UK yesterday in the wake of the discovery of 3 dead swans in Dorset, on the south coast of England.
This new reassortment is likely related to the virus that spun off from last winter's H5N8 virus in Greece last spring, showed up in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in November, and then in the Netherlands in early December - but we'll have to wait for further lab confirmation.Since arriving in Europe a little over a month ago we've seen scattered reports of sick or dead birds in Switzerland and in Germany carrying the virus. While not spreading anywhere near as aggressively as H5N8 did last year, HPAI H5N6 continues to make inroads across Western Europe.
