A dead crane, foreground, at the Hula Nature Reserve in northern Israel in December 2021. A bird flu outbreak in northern Israel killed at least 5,200 migratory cranes and forced farmers to slaughter hundreds of thousands of chickens as authorities tried to contain what they say is the deadliest wildlife disaster in the nation’s history. Photo: Ayal Margolin / JINIPIX / Associated Press
A dead crane, foreground, at the Hula Nature Reserve in northern Israel in December 2021. A bird flu outbreak in northern Israel killed at least 5,200 migratory cranes and forced farmers to slaughter hundreds of thousands of chickens as authorities tried to contain what they say is the deadliest wildlife disaster in the nation’s history. Photo: Ayal Margolin / JINIPIX / Associated Press

By Isabel Kershner
29 December 2021

JERUSALEM (The New York Times) – Israel is acting to contain a severe outbreak of avian flu that has already led to mass culling of infected poultry and has caused the deaths of about 5,000 migratory cranes in a popular nature reserve in the north of the country.

The minister of environmental protection, Tamar Zandberg, described the outbreak, identified as the H5N1 type, as “one of the worst blows to wildlife in Israel’s history” after a visit to the Hula Nature Reserve this week. Hula is a wetland that is a central stop on the winter migration route to Africa.

The reserve, usually bustling with bird watchers at this time of year, is temporarily closed to visitors and the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on Wednesday that Ms. Zandberg was working to suspend the rest of the hunting season in the country, which normally runs until the end of January.

The fear, the ministry said, was that gunshots from bird hunters could cause the wild birds to fly off to other locations, spreading the disease, which it said could also be spread by contaminated car tires on hunters’ vehicles or on the soles of their shoes, or by the dogs retrieving their prey.

Officials have also warned of the danger of the transmission of avian flu from animals to humans, which could be deadly. No such cases have been recorded in Israel. […]

By mid-December the number of dead cranes began to mount up and avian flu was identified as the cause. Most of the dead birds have been found in the water. [more]

Israel Faces a Severe Blow to Wildlife Amid Outbreak of Avian Flu