Monday 9 January 2017

AVIAN FLU

We have received the following email from the Council - could all member secretaries take note

******************************
Dear Society Secretary,

Further to our previous e-mail in December I am writing to advise that DEFRA have extended the Avian Flu Prevention Zone to 28th January 2017.
The H5N8 strain of Avian Influenza has been circulating in Europe for several weeks. An outbreak was confirmed in turkeys at a farm in Lincolnshire on 16 December and a further case was confirmed in a back yard flock in Carmarthenshire on 3 January.
The disease has also been found in wild birds in Wales, England and Scotland.
The recent H5N8 avian flu findings in wild birds and a backyard flock in Wales highlight just how essential it is to minimise contact between wild and captive birds and maintain good biosecurity to reduce the risk of infection.
We would be grateful for your assistance in bringing this information to the attention of fellow tenants.
Further information is available on the DEFRA website at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/avian-flu-prevention-zone-extended .

 From looking at our records in December, in an effort to contact individual tenants, we are aware that there are far more tenants with poultry than our records show. Because of the risks associated with Avian Flu we would like to have more accurate information easily available, we would therefore be grateful if you could help us update our records by letting us have a list of plot numbers for those plots on your site which currently have poultry.
We do provide new tenants with guidance on keeping poultry and whilst we don’t want to re-introduce a permission system we would ask that we are made aware by individual tenants or through your reports of any new poultry keeping on site. That way we will have the most current information reasonably possible.
Thanks for your help and Happy New Year!
Regards,
Malcolm

 Malcolm Russell
Head of Service (Neighbourhood Services)
Bolton Council


No comments:

Post a Comment