Number of birds which have been culled in Scotland in 2022 due to Avian Flu: EIR release

Information requested

The number of birds which have been culled in Scotland in 2022 due to Avian Flu, or due to the risks the disease poses, organised by location and species.

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Response

The information you have requested is provided below in Table 1 and is accurate up to 1 November 2022.

Table 1 Confirmed cases of highly pathogenic avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in Poultry and/or Captive Birds in Scotland in 2022

Reference	Location	Date confirmed	No. of birds culled	Species
AIV2022/11	Near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire	22/01/2022	38	Chicken, Duck, Turkey, Geese, Guinea fowl
AIV2022/27	Near Collieston, Aberdeenshire	11/03/2022	3	Ducks
AIV2022/30	Near Beith, North Ayrshire	18/03/2022	104	Owl, Cockatiel, Ducks, Chickens
AIV2022/31	Near Strichen, Aberdeenshire	19/03/2022	89,113	Chickens
AIV2022/45	Island of Whalsay, Shetland Islands	30/05/2022	139	Ducks, Chickens
AIV2022/50	Near Birsay, Orkney Islands	06/07/2022	10	Chickens
AIV2022/114	On Bernera, The Island of Lewis and Harris	08/10/2022	51	Chickens, Guinea fowl
AIV2022/119	Near Tankerness, Orkney	14/10/2022	2	Chickens
AIV2022/169	Near Huntly, Aberdeenshire	29/10/2022	Not available at this point	Chickens
AIV2022/170	Near Kirkwall, Orkney	30/10/2022	Not available at this point	Chickens, Ducks, Pigeons

Total: 89,460

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