In the nature reserve De Petten near Den Hoorn on Texel and at the adjacent Mok Bay, an enormous amount of dead sandwich terns have been found. Normally, the seabirds rest here before hunting for fish again, but now more than 400 dead birds have been collected. Why there are so many is a mystery.
The Bird Information Center Texel suspects that the birds have died from bird flu, as the symptoms indicate. The birds exhibit similar behavior to waterfowl, such as ducks, which are known to have bird flu.
“The sandwich terns make spastic movements and shake their heads. They die shortly afterwards,” explains Marc Plomp of Bird Information Center Texel. “In ducks and geese, for example, we see the same behavior when they have the bird flu.”
Exceptional situation
Bird flu occurs annually in the Netherlands, but usually mainly in winter. It mainly affects waterfowl, not seabirds like the sandwich tern. So why so many sandwich terns are dying this year is a mystery. That is why it is important to find out the cause of death of the birds.
Hundreds of dead sandwich terns have since been cleared up. Some of these have been sent to a laboratory. There it is being investigated whether the birds actually died of bird flu and why it is spreading so quickly among these birds.
“More than ninety percent of the dead birds we find here are sandwich terns,” explains Marc. Some dead black-headed gulls have also been found in Texel. Marc suspects that they died by pecking fish from the terns. “They live in each other’s territory. So if it’s really bird flu, it quickly spreads to the black-headed gulls.”
France and England
The death has now been going on for a week and is also happening in other parts of Europe. “Remarkably enough, colonies of sandwich terns also die in France, just like here. In England many gannets die again.” Marc has no explanation for this.
Warning signs will be placed in the De Petten nature reserve to draw people’s attention to the dead birds. Visitors to the nature park are requested to keep their distance from the deceased animals.
“People can spread the virus,” Marc explains. “For example, if a walker gives the dead bird a push with a boot, the bacteria will appear on the sole. The walker continues walking and unconsciously stands on food from birds. This is how the virus spreads invisibly.”
About to humans
The virus has not been proven to be dangerous for humans. However, it can be transferred to humans. “But that only happens after very intensive contact with the animals, such as in the poultry sector.”
Yet Marc emphasizes once again: “Leave the birds alone”.
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