{"id":146806,"date":"2025-10-26T21:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T21:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/146806\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T21:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T21:40:11","slug":"wetland-centre-to-reopen-after-bird-flu-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/146806\/","title":{"rendered":"Wetland centre to reopen after bird flu scare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A wetland nature reserve is set to reopen after possible cases of avian influenza led to the site closing for four days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Martin Mere Wetland Centre in Lancashire shut on Thursday after cases were reported among birds in an enclosed area away from visitors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Burscough beauty spot, which attracted about 140,000 visitors last year, said &#8220;strict&#8221; protection measures had been implemented and a full inspection had taken place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They said they were &#8220;looking forward to welcoming back visitors&#8221; on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In a statement, the centre said government officials &#8220;advise that the risk to public health from the virus is very low&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;If you booked to visit us while we were closed, your admission tickets are still valid on any alternative date,&#8221; it added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Avian influenza, commonly referred to as bird flu, can be carried by wild birds migrating to the UK from mainland Europe during the winter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the autumn, the reserve fills with bird species including thousands of pink-footed geese and whooper swans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/curation\/p0cjdttt?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:BBC Sounds;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">BBC Sounds<\/a>\u00a0and follow BBC Lancashire on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BBCLancashire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bbclancashire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">X<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbclancashire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a> and watch BBC North West Tonight on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/iplayer\/episodes\/b006pfjx\/north-west-tonight?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:BBC iPlayer;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">BBC iPlayer<\/a>. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.<\/p>\n<p>More on this storyRelated internet links<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wetland nature reserve is set to reopen after possible cases of avian influenza led to the site&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[46376,6828,18,135,19,17,86653],"class_list":{"0":"post-146806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-avian-influenza","9":"tag-bird-species","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-martin-mere-wetland-centre"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115442642062268613","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}