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Counting the cost of bird flu
Country Life UK
|September 17, 2025
WHEN egg farmer Jerry Saunders found two of his hens struck down by avian influenza (AI) in February this year, he had to cull his entire flock of 5,000 home-bred, free-range birds.
He lost all his customers including the biggest, Riverford, and says that he has neither the heart nor the heart nor the finances to restock. 'Compensation would have barely touched the sides and the disease is still rife,' he says. 'Why on earth would we go back for more? It is probably endemic. Certainly insurance companies think it is and don't want to cover free-range birds.' His Orchard Organic Farm is in Devon, which has been a hotspot for the virus, believed to be brought in by seabirds, although protection zones in the county and in west Somerset were lifted last week.
This story is from the September 17, 2025 edition of Country Life UK.
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