In England and Wales, a new legal requirement has come into force from 1 October, obliging all bird keepers to register on the Great Britain poultry register. This must be completed with the APHA (Animal and Plant Health Agency) before 1 October 2024, and its aim is to strengthen the implementation of the biosecurity measures needed to improve the United Kingdom’s response to AI.
The government is reminding all poultry farmers, and anyone keeping poultry birds, regardless of the number kept, of the new measures being introduced to combat the spread of avian influenza in the United Kingdom.
The new regulations cover all types of bird keepers, including backyard flock owners, birds of prey and pigeons. They do not apply to caged pet birds kept permanently inside a dwelling, such as a parrot, canary or budgerigar, which never leave the premises.
Why is registration important?
The new regulation is the result of the review of the Great Britain poultry register carried out by the Government in 2023, in which the National Farmers Union (NFU) has been actively involved since 2017.
The changes to the register will enable the APHA to improve its response to disease outbreaks, making it easier for keepers to receive information on confirmed cases, surveillance and monitoring, and biosecurity measures. While commercial businesses already have strict biosecurity measures in place and their flocks are registered, the rise in backyard poultry keeping in recent years has posed greater challenges for disease containment.
Minimising the administrative burden
NFU President James Mottershead has stated that he is keen for the government to ensure that the process of registering, reviewing and updating the Great Britain poultry census is as straightforward as possible in order to minimise the administrative burden on all bird keepers. He is also calling on the government to ensure that these new requirements help to remove the restrictions imposed on poultry keepers when non-commercial birds are affected by notifiable diseases.
Although the United Kingdom was declared free of highly pathogenic avian influenza as of 29 March 2024, H5N1 continues to be found in wild birds across the country, as is the case throughout Europe.