Man who lived with 20 ducks gets bird flu | Abroad

Alan Gosling, 79, from Buckfastleigh in Devon, in the far south west of the United Kingdom, is a retired railway worker and avid bird lover. His love is so great that the man took twenty ducks, which were part of a large flock that lived near his home, as pets.

Shortly before Christmas, however, it turned out that several birds were sick. Tests by the local health authorities showed that several animals had bird flu. All animals were therefore culled on New Year’s Day, as a precaution. To Gosling’s horror: “He begged those men in their protective suits not to kill his birds,” his daughter told local media. “They were his best friends. The past few weeks have been hell.”

To top it all off, Gosling himself was found to be infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, forcing him to live in isolation. “We cannot comfort him,” said his daughter-in-law.

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