When it comes to avian influenza there is no such thing as a low-risk region – there are only high risk and higher risk areas.
That was the message chief veterinary officer (CVO) Nigel Gibbens gave to free-range poultry producers who are outside of the higher risk areas and are considering letting their birds out when Defra's amended Prevention Zone is implemented on 28 February.
Mr Gibbens said: “AI has spread north, south, east and west, in wild birds and domestic flocks. Essentially, everywhere that it has turned up in wild birds it has turned up in domestic flocks, but it hasn’t always led to flock to flock spread, so it is a pat on the back for you guys here. Why doesn’t it move from flock to flock here? By the time we have found it your biosecurity measures have stopped it moving.”
He added that the virus was developing in an unprecedented way and from the start of March, housing would not be mandatory for free-range producers in England who are not in a higher risk area.
Click here to read more about what the CVO had to say.
Keeping it real
Producers were urged to make realistic risk assessments based on the location of their farms and the ongoing risk of exposure to wild birds. Charles Bourns, who was recently re-elected as chairman of the Copa-Cogeca working group on poultry and eggs (poultry farming unions group in Europe), said that it was clear that AI was going to be an annual event. He pointed to German retailers who were backing their free-range producers, even though their packs were now over stickered as ‘barn’.
Chief poultry adviser Gary Ford said: “The NFU has been asking retailers for their continued support for free-range producers which will allow farmers to decide whether to continue housing their birds based on disease risk rather than financial concerns.”
The labour debate
Hatchery owner James Hook and broiler farmer Simon Barton both voiced their fears for the industry if no agreement is reached on employing EU workers on their farms, post-Brexit. Mr Hook said the industry can survive AI but he did not think his business could cope without Eastern European staff.
Free range egg producer Phil Crawley said: “Eastern European staff are very important to our business. Personally speaking, we will automate some of our packing but you cannot automate the job of a stockman. A stockman will always be a stockman and we need these people.”