Malaga City Council today shut down El Parque de Huelin after around 20 dead birds, including ducks, coots and seagulls, were found there over the weekend.
The move comes amid suspicions the deaths may be linked to an avian flu outbreak – just days after one was declared in Sevilla.
Samples from the carcasses and the pond water have been sent for analysis to the National Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza in Algete (Madrid), under the Ministry of Agriculture.
Results are still pending, but so far no further cases have been detected either in Huelin or in other city parks with wetlands.
The council said the closure was a precautionary step, taken after warnings from the Junta de Andalucia, which confirmed a separate avian flu outbreak in Sevilla’s Parque del Tamarguillo this week.
Maintenance companies have also been instructed to step up surveillance at ponds and lakes across Málaga.
The shutdown is temporary and will remain in place until test results arrive in the coming days. Officials say all future action will be guided by national protocols under Spain’s 2025 Avian Influenza Surveillance Plan.
The incident has sparked tensions between residents and the council. Local activist Rocio Santos, from the Movimiento Vecinal por el Parque del Oeste, welcomed the closure but criticised the delay in responding.
‘For us it’s good news, because it shows that our complaints about Saturday’s bird deaths forced the council to react,’ she told Malaga Hoy.
But she warned that if neighbourhood groups had not raised the alarm, ‘the City Council would have done nothing, when this should have been managed automatically.’
Opposition party Con Malaga went further, accusing the ruling PP of ‘negligence’ and abandonment of public parks. Spokeswoman Toni Morillas said residents had first flagged problems with dirty water and dying plants in the Parque del Oeste, followed by the bird deaths in Huelin.
Meanwhile, in Sevilla, public health chief Manuel Fernandez Zurbaran has outlined the human monitoring protocol triggered by avian flu cases in Tamarguillo.
Anyone exposed to sick or dead birds will be followed for 10 days, undergo a PCR test on day five, and be referred for medical care if symptoms such as fever emerge.
For Malaga, all eyes are now on the pending lab results. Until then, the gates of Huelin Park will remain closed.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
