LONDON – All poultry and captive birds in England must be kept indoors from Nov. 7 under new restrictions to fight avian flu, the government has announced.
The housing order comes after turkey farmers warned of a shortage this Christmas caused by the country’s largest ever bird flu outbreak.
The British Poultry Council has said shoppers could be hit by price rises.
About 5.5 million birds have now died or been culled since October 2021.
That includes 2.3 million birds this October alone.
In total, more than 210 cases of bird flu have been confirmed since October 2021, including 80 confirmed cases in England this month.
“We are now facing this year, the largest ever outbreak of bird flu and are seeing rapid escalation in the number of cases on commercial farms and in backyard birds across England,” said Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss.
The disease circulates naturally in wild birds that can spread the flu to poultry and captive birds when they migrate to the UK.
Farmer Tom Copas has already been housing his 60,000 free-range turkeys on his farm in Cookham, Berkshire, to protect them from bird flu.
“It’s terrifying right now. Our entire business depends on the Christmas market. If we were to get bird flu we would lose everything,” he told BBC News. “I know of two seasonal producers who had outbreaks who will never have turkeys again. One produces about a million turkeys for Christmas and they have lost about half of them.”
He warned of a shortage of Christmas turkeys on the shelves and price rises: “It’s expected that the supermarkets will be at least 20% short, if not more, of their Christmas turkeys.” (BBC)
