Birds, Mammals and Wildlife Gardening – GBHi

Established as a Universities Federation for Animal Welfare Working Group in 2003, the Garden Bird Health Initiative (GBHi) aims to develop and publish guidelines about how to best feed garden birds in order to maximize the benefits for their welfare and conservation, and to undertake a major garden bird health surveillance and research project.

Post mortem investigations and diagnostic tests are expensive (over £100 per dead bird examined) and GBHi is urgently seeking further funds to pursue this important work. It’s not well known that disease outbreaks occur quite commonly in garden birds and this research investigates their causes and prevention.

The project is coordinated by the Institute of Zoology, with the assistance of the Scottish Agricultural College, Liverpool University, the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre, the British Trust for Ornithology, the RSPB and UFAW.

Garden birds, particularly finch species and house sparrows, are susceptible to a variety of conditions including infection with Salmonella bacteria. In 2007 there were many reports of finch mortality caused by infection with the Trichomonas parasite. Clinical signs (symptoms) can be very similar for different diseases and post mortem examination is required to confirm the cause of any garden bird mortality. If you are find sick and dead finches in your garden, please help GBHi monitor the spread and intensity of disease outbreaks in garden birds by telling us what them happening to your garden birds. You can access a recording form in MS Word here - http://www.ufaw.org.uk/documents/GBHIwebquestionnaire_tcm9-166044_002.doc

Please return the form to UFAW, The Old School, Brewhouse Hill, Wheathampstead, Herts AL4 8AN, or by fax 01582 831414, or by e-mail to ufaw@ufaw.org.uk.

Birds, mammals and wildlife gardening dead photograph by karindalziel, used under a creative commons attribution licence

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