Up to 80 wild swans at the Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset have died after a bird flu outbreak
Eighty wild swans have died at the historic Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset - with nine confirmed cases of H5N8 strain of avian influenza.
The site is owned by Charlotte Townshend, the granddaughter of the 7th Earl of Ilchester and daughter of the 9th Viscount Galway.
The 61-year-old - whose fortune has been estimated at £420 million - is the only person in Britain other than the Queen entitled to own swans.
It is the same strain of avian flu that has broken out in other areas of Britain, including the Wildfowl and Wetlands Slimbridge reserve in Gloucestershire.
The case is the latest of wild birds testing positive for avian influenza this winter
Staff are now battling to stop the outbreak - thought to have been brought into Britain by migratory birds from Europe - from spreading to local poultry.
DEFRA has confirmed nine cases of bird flu at Abbotsbury in its mute swans. They stopped testing once it has been detected so the actual number of cases could be as much as the 80 that have died.
The attraction is closed until March, with access restricted to authorised staff who are taking extra precautions to prevent the outbreak from spreading further.
Abbotsbury Tourism general manager John Houston said: 'Unfortunately there's nothing we can do about it. You can't stop migratory birds dropping in to local colonies like ours and infect the population.
'What seems to be happening is it's attacking the younger swans who haven't built up their antibodies and immunity in the way the older swans have.
'We expect to have 30 or 40 swans die over the winter period due to cold weather, old age and other ailments, but so far 80 have died, which is above the norm.
'Nine have definitely tested positive for bird flu but since DEFRA stops testing once they have detected it they don't test anymore so we can't be sure if other cases are bird flu or not. But it is a very big outbreak.
'The current H5N8 strain of bird flu is of very low risk to public health and has never transferred to humans. It's not a problem for the human population thankfully, it's totally a bird disease.'
Abbotsbury Swannery, which sits behind Chesil Beach, near Weymouth, was hit in January 2008 when restrictions were put in place after a number of dead birds were found to have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus.
The origins of the swan herd date back to the 11th century when they were originally farmed by Benedictine monks for banqueting.
Abbotsbury Swannery is owned by the Ilchester estate, which first bought the swans from Henry VIII in 1541.
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