Every BirdFlu headline burns the same wound in the sport: transport banned, races suspended, clubs silenced, championships erased. Months of preparation turn worthless overnight, not because someone proved pigeons are dangerous — but because fear is easier than evidence.
Then the FCI pointed to a new laboratory study from Di Genova et al. (Animal & Plant Health Agency, UK; Journal of General Virology, 2025). We actually read it. And what the scientists found destroys years of speculation in one blow.
The Science in Normal Words
The heaviest current strain — H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b — the one that shredded the poultry industry worldwide, was deliberately given to racing pigeons. Not whispered, not guessed — injected and monitored under high bio-security.
Scientists asked:
Do pigeons get infected at all?
Do they get sick or die?
Can they pass it to other pigeons?
Can they infect chickens standing right next to them?
Do they contaminate water, litter, feathers, air?
The Results — Not Open To Debate
• Hard to infect — pigeons needed extreme viral load to react
• Hardly any illness — infected birds stayed clinically normal
• Zero transmission — not pigeon→pigeon, not pigeon→chicken
• Minimal contamination — environment remained almost virus-free
In one sentence: Racing Pigeons And BirdFlu do not form the chain of infection people accuse them of. Pigeons are not amplifiers, not spreaders, not a relevant vehicle in this outbreak.
Meanwhile… the sport bleeds for a crime it did not commit
While the science clears the pigeon, the world still punishes the handler:
National classics cancelled with one email
Young bird seasons wiped after 10 months of work
Clubs lose income — some never recover
Motivated fanciers lose incentive and quit altogether
International prestige races collapse under transport bans
Decades of breeding investment cannot be “replayed next week”
This is not a minor inconvenience — this is structural, irreversible damage to a sport that already fights aging membership, rising costs, and shrinking freedom to move birds. And it is happening on top of evidence that now says: the pigeon was never the threat.
Why this matters and why you read it here first
The only way policy changes is when facts crush habits. This new peer-reviewed study, shared through the FCI, is not opinion — it is ammunition. It gives the duivensport something we rarely had in this debate: scientific leverage.
Others scroll past PDFs. We open them.
Others share rumours. We share evidence.
Others panic. We read.
Follow PigeonBoss.com and you don’t hear what people fear — you hear what is true.
Jan de Wijs
The Pigeon Boss