//“It is justified to talk about a disaster,” Anders Wirdheim, chairman of the city of Halmstad’s ornithological association, told local broadcaster SVT, after hundreds of dead northern gannets had been discovered in a short amount of time. Most of them were infected.
“If [the outbreak] continues, and it seems like it will, then the situation is serious,” Wirdheim said, adding “if 7,000 birds disappear in a colony, it is fair to call it a catastrophe. That is the scenario we see right now, with a risk of this becoming a recurring event.”
…Birds infected with the flu virus display unnatural behavior before they die. Observers have witnessed terminally ill swans circling around themselves and geese flying irrationally up and down.
The bird flu reaches the brain and causes severe inflammation. When it hits the central nervous system, it causes the bird to lose control of its body.//
Bird flu outbreak leaves Swedish coast littered with carcasses