Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) mitigate the spread of trichomonosis amongst bird populations and (b) prevent the further decline of greenfinches.

Trichomonosis in garden birds is not a notifiable disease in the UK, but has caused a significant decline in greenfinch populations since it was first detected here in 2005. The disease has unfortunately also been documented in other garden bird species, including chaffinches, house sparrow, dunnock, great tit and siskin.

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) provides advice about keeping bird feeders and water baths clean to prevent transmission between birds. The public can report any concerns to the Garden Wildlife Health (GWH) programme. Defra supports the GWH, which is a collaborative project between the BTO, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Froglife. The project aims to monitor the health of British wildlife and identify new disease threats. It focuses on garden birds, amphibians, reptiles, and hedgehogs. Members of the public can submit reports of sick or dead wildlife and send in samples to the GWH for analysis.