Threatened and special: warty ducks have elongated head feathers that give them a characteristic hairstyle.
Image: Imagebroker
H5N1 is endemic and kills rare species and mass-raised poultry. Vaccination might help. But time is of the essence, otherwise the influenza virus could spread.
Still. Only the Lorfe murmurs quietly to itself. Jörg Zarges looks at the small stream. On the shore: his parents’ house. He stands there and listens. But there is nothing to be heard. It’s never been so quiet here, he says. Not since he can remember. The splashing was always accompanied by chattering and cackling, by hissing and cooing. Ducks greased their feathers to bobble around in the lorfe, geese waddled around in the shade of the apple tree, chickens scratched by the wooden stalls and fought at the feeding trough. Rare Red List breeds were included, iridescent green emerald ducks, black and white striped feather-footed bantams, and dark blue and fawn-colored warty ducks with their deep red faces.
Zarges has won prizes with them and was even German champion. But the chattering, the shimmering, the beauty – all this only exists in his memory. The poultry paradise in Schmittlotheim at the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park is deserted. A duck had caught the highly pathogenic bird flu at a special show in Frankenau, and epidemic protection came into play. There has been silence since December 11th.