Latest Defra information

Clodagh said:
I think there has only been two cases of backyard breeders having it, and both kept chickens with ducks. I do see that people may not have reported it, but I think that is a bit unlikely.
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Would you report it if you left your 6 chicken running around and you had a couple die? The three groups of pheasants were clearly outside.
 
popsdosh said:
Would you report it if you left your 6 chicken running around and you had a couple die? The three groups of pheasants were clearly outside.
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A couple no, two have died since lockdown begun and I didn't report anything. I think if it is this strain of bird flu they all die, or the vast majority, and then in this case yes I would.
 
I'm hearing more and more about people who have chosen to disregard any instructions, including a backyard flock in Somerset where the wetland birds were infected, and a flock of geese not far from me here, as well as a local farmers wife who sells eggs. Makes me wonder why those of us who bother do so, it is costing me a lot of money and time and if it isn't 100% it seems to be a waste of both.
 
PorkChop said:
I will be keeping mine in until the end of April, or when restrictions are lifted. The guidelines are really not that much different to those up until now.
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Me too PorkChop. The way I read it is they still need to be separated from having contact direct or indirect, with any wild bird (not just waterfowl).
 
popsdosh said:
Another 55,000 culled in Suffolk yesterday near to another outbreak.
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And all intensively kept, housed birds with no access to wild birds.

If the virus is as virulent as it's claimed, then being housed is only going to exacerbate the spread within the flock. It will be interesting to see what happens with the larger shoots where pheasants and partridges are released in numbers of tens of thousands and if they also succumb to the disease.

I understand that Hi-Fly Game Hatcheries have declared themselves bankrupt.

Alec.
 
Hoping the picture works! Just to brighten the post :)

Edit - picture didn't work :(

Well my chickens and ducks are going to be soooo happy to be released, it has been a bit of a slog this winter for them.
 
I have chicks and growers, I suppose they can go back up to the stables but the swallows are nesting up there now, I don't want to shut them out. Is a complete ******.
Do you know if the person effected had ducks?
 
thats something I hadn't thought of, we're not allowed to interfere with nesting birds are we? my hens are still undercover-mainly because I've been keeping them away from the waterfowl. Not hatching any chickens this year but the goose is sitting. If they want to move her they can do it themselves :p
 
There are more wildfowl than ever round here on their migrations with stops to graze (geese and swans mainly) so it would seem the lifting of the restrictions was probably economic rather than scientific in motivation (free range egg producers and any compensation)?
 
I'm wondering if H5N8 won't become something which we're going to have to live with, just as we do Enzootic Abortion in sheep and TB in cattle.

Alec.
 
Story I have seen via a friend on facebook who's a poultry breeder up near the zone where it's occurred is it's somebody who has been reported for burying his flock when they died around the time hy fly had the outbreak. So it's looking like an old case of the disease.
How true this is I don't know as I don't know how long the virus can stay active in the soil, does anyone on here know?
 
cremedemonthe said:
Story I have seen via a friend on facebook who's a poultry breeder up near the zone where it's occurred is it's somebody who has been reported for burying his flock when they died around the time hy fly had the outbreak. So it's looking like an old case of the disease.
How true this is I don't know as I don't know how long the virus can stay active in the soil, does anyone on here know?
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anything from 5 days to around 24 I read somewhere. trouble is, if he did have it, local birds could now have it which could then pass it back.
 
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