Trading standards Avian influenza
If you own 50 or more birds, it is a legal requirement to register your flock with the poultry register. You can register on the GOV.UK website.
Current situation
Avian influenza wildlife interactive map and data dashboard
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has developed an avian influenza in wildlife surveillance programme in Great Britain. This includes...
- An interactive map of reported wild bird mortality and findings of avian influenza virus (bird flu) in wild birds and wild mammals
- An interactive data dashboard of findings of avian influenza virus in wild birds.
If you've reported a dead wild bird online or via the helpline (03459 33 55 77), check the status of your wild bird report by entering the location of your report or your Defra reference number (prefixed by WSF- or REP-) in the maps search box.
Data in the map and dashboard will be updated weekly. Collection information and test results may show as pending for recent reports.
People without birds
What is bird flu?
Bird flu is a disease of birds caused by influenza viruses. The viruses are classified according to their ability to cause severe disease in birds as either highly pathogenic or low pathogenic. The highly pathogenic strain currently circulating in the UK is very infectious, a very small amount of virus causes severe disease in birds and is often fatal. In rare cases, it can affect humans.
Is it dangerous?
The advice from the UK Health Security Agency remains that the risk to public health from the virus is very low. Our advice to the public is not to touch or pick up any dead or visibly sick birds that they find
The Food Standards Agency has said that, on the basis of the current scientific evidence, bird flu poses a very low food safety risk for UK consumers. All thoroughly cooked poultry and poultry products, including eggs, are safe to eat
How does it spread?
Bird flu is spread by close contact with an infected bird (dead or alive). This includes:
- Touching infected birds
- Touching droppings or bedding
- Killing or preparing infected poultry for cooking
If you're visiting a foreign country that's had an outbreak you should:
- Wash your hands often with warm water and soap, especially before and after handling food, in particular raw poultry
- Use different utensils for cooked and raw meat
- Make sure meat is cooked until steaming hot
- Avoid contact with live birds and poultry
What not to do:
- Don't go near or touch bird droppings or sick or dead birds
- Don't go to live animal markets or poultry farms
- Don't bring any live birds or poultry back to the UK, including feathers
- Don't eat undercooked or raw poultry or duck
- Don't eat raw eggs
The seasonal flu vaccine doesn't protect against bird flu.
To prevent infection it's important not to touch or pick up any dead or visibly sick birds that you find.
Who does it affect?
Those at highest risk of contracting avian influenza are the elderly, those with compromised immune systems, those who work with birds, and those who live in close contact with birds
What to do with dead birds
If you find small numbers of dead garden birds at your home (domestic residential property only) you can dispose of them in your household or municipal waste bin. If you dispose of a dead wild bird with your household or municipal waste, you should:
- Pick it up wearing disposable gloves or a plastic bag over your hand
- Put the bird in a plastic bag and tie it. Take care not to contaminate the outside of the bag
- Put the bird in a second (preferably leak proof) plastic bag, along with the gloves or plastic bag you used to pick it up and tie it. Take care not to touch the outside of the gloves with bare hands
- Put it in your outside household or municipal waste bin
- Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water
To find out more information and guidance on avian influenza in wild birds, please visit the GOV.UK website.
Bird owners
Causes of bird flu
The main causes of bird flu in poultry and other captive birds are contact with:
- Wild birds, in particular waterfowl such as geese, ducks and swans and gulls
- Faeces from infected birds
- Dirty footwear, clothing and vehicles and equipment
Biosecurity advice
- Keep ducks and geese in a separate pen or building away from other birds
- Ducks and geese don't always show signs of bird flu. This means they can quickly pass it on to other birds, such as chickens or turkeys
- Don't let poultry or captive birds from neighbouring sites or properties near your birds
- Complete the AIPZ self-assessment checklist. Representatives from APHA or local authorities may ask for it if they inspect your premises
Registering
If you have 50 or more poultry or game birds you must register your birds within one month after they arrive at your premises. This is a legal requirement.
If you have fewer than 50 birds you should register your birds, even if you only keep them as pets.
Registering your birds means the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) can contact you during a bird flu outbreak and will send you disease alerts for notifiable poultry diseases including avian Influenza.
For more information and guidance on how to prevent avian influenza and stop it spreading, please visit the GOV.UK website.
Farmer
What happens if my birds get avian influenza?
In the event of avian influenza being confirmed in your flock, any surviving birds will be culled. You only receive compensation from the government for any healthy birds (birds showing no signs or symptoms of the disease at the time of culling) at the value of the birds immediately before culling.
Your holding will also be placed under strict restrictions, affecting all movements on and off the site, including but not limited to people, livestock, bedding, feed and manure.
As the infected premises, you would also be responsible for carrying out and paying for secondary cleansing and disinfection which may have significant financial implications.
This is also linked to when the UK can regain official disease-free status for avian influenza from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Not being able to carry out secondary cleansing and disinfection or a delay in completion can have serious implications on our international trade in poultry meat, eggs and breeding chicks.
For more information and guidance on avian influenza as a farmer, please visit the NFU online website.
What if I am in a disease control zone?
Additional restrictions apply to all poultry keepers within disease control zones. Licences may be required for movements on and off sites that have poultry or captive birds on them. If any part of a holding is within a disease control zone then the whole holding is considered to be within that disease control zone. Licences may be required for movements of livestock, pigs and horses on or off a holding within a disease control zone that also has poultry on it, even if it’s just a few hens in the garden.
A general licence has been issued for the movement of mammals (including livestock) from or to premises in the Protection or Surveillance Zone in England or Wales where poultry and other captive birds are kept (please note that any mammals moved under this licence must have no access to and been kept separate from poultry and any other captive birds for a minimum of 21 days). In order to use the general licence, you must follow all of the requirements listed within the licence. The full list of general licences can be found on the GOV.UK website.
If there are no poultry or captive birds on both the holding where the movement starts and the holding where it ends then movement licences are not required (unless either site is under individual restriction).
You can find out if you are in a disease control zone by using the APHA’s interactive map.
Get information on the restrictions that apply in avian influenza disease control zones from NFU Online.
The same website also offers general guidance if you have birds on your farm.
Compensation
NFU Online states that in the event of avian influenza being confirmed in your flock, any surviving birds will be culled. You only receive compensation from the government for any healthy birds (birds showing no signs or symptoms of the disease at the time of culling) at the value of the birds immediately before culling.
Protect your workers
Please take a look at the advice from the Health and Safety Executive on how to protect yourself and your workers during the avian influenza outbreak, including how to protect yourself when working on a site with infected birds.
National Farmers Union advice on avian influenza
General advice can be found on the NFU Online website.
Reporting
Reporting free-roaming birds
During a bird flu outbreak when a housing order is in place the animal health team get many reports of neighbours or family members who aren't complying with the housing order. In order to conserve resources so that they can deal with active bird flu outbreaks and other important reports of animal health and welfare issues, we ask that members of the public speak to their neighbours and family members about this in the first instance before reporting them to the animal health team. This instance will only be investigated if there is an active housing order in place which the owner is failing to comply with.
Please also note that although we can take anonymous complaints and won't disclose the identity of complainants, we can't guarantee that the owner won't guess who reported them.
When making a report please include as much detail as possible, including numbers of animals, photographs, address or map reference/what3words of the poultry location, and details of previous interactions where the owner has refused to house the animals. A phone number will also allow this report to be dealt with more quickly as we won't have to drive to the site of the report, saving fuel and public resources.
You can contact the Animal Health Team on:
- animalhealth@shropshire.gov.uk
- 0345 678 9067
Reporting dead wild birds
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) carries out year-round surveillance of dead wild birds submitted via public reports and warden patrols as part of its wild bird surveillance programme. In Britain members of the public are encouraged to report findings of dead wild birds using the system or by calling the Defra helpline (03459 33 55 77). APHA triages reports and doesn't collect all birds. They adjust the birds for different species to increase or decrease the sensitivity of surveillance.
APHA and their contractors then collect some of these birds and test them to understand what risk is posed to poultry and other captive birds. Collecting and testing these birds is done to gain an understanding of how the disease is distributed geographically and in different types of wild bird. Not all birds will be collected, and APHA should advise on further action when birds are not collected.
APHA publish a report (updated weekly) on findings of HPAI in wild birds in Britain and further information on reports of avian influenza in wild bird in Britain and across Europe are available via APHAs outbreak assessments. We're unable to comment on any testing or reports that aren't listed on this site as the results won't yet be ready for publication.
Find out more on disposing of dead wild birds not required for surveillance on the GOV.UK website.
Further guidance on wild bird incidents is available through the Mitigation Strategy for Avian Influenza in Wild Birds in England and Wales.
Reporting suspicion of influenza of avian origin in wild mammals
Avian influenza (bird flu) viruses can also infect mammals. Find out how we monitor spill over of avian influenza virus from wild birds to wild mammals on the GOV.UK website.
If members of the public find a dead wild carnivore (eg fox, otter, pine marten, stoat, weasel, pole cat, mink) where the cause of death is unknown, or the animal has shown signs of respiratory or neurological disease prior to death they should report it immediately to APHA by calling:
- 03000 200 301 if you’re in England
- 03003 038 268 if you’re in Wales
If you examine a wild mammal or test a sample from a wild mammal and suspect or detect the presence of avian influenza virus or antibodies to avian influenza virus you must report it immediately to APHA using the telephone numbers above. If you don't report it you’re breaking the law.
Check out the influenza A (H5N1) infection in mammals: suspect case definition and diagnostic testing criteria guidance for further information.
Links
NHS
DEFRA
Call the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) helpline on 03459 33 55 77 if you find dead wild birds.
NFU
For up to date information on the control of avian influenza please follow the advice on the DEFRA website. For self-assessment of your biosecurity please refer to the documents on this page.