\n The warning comes as the risk of bird flu increases, particularly in coastal counties along bird migration routes and in areas with a high concentration of gamebird activity.\n<\/p>\n
\n The alert applies to all commercial bird keepers, particularly those involved in shoots and game bird rearing.\n<\/p>\n
\n An Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) remains in force across Great Britain, with updated biosecurity measures updated yesterday for game bird operations in England.\n<\/p>\n
\n The additional measures reflect the specific risks affecting the shooting and game bird sectors at this time of year and are designed to protect both wild and captive bird populations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Christine Middlemiss, UK Chief Veterinary Officer, said: “We are seeing increasing outbreaks of avian influenza, particularly in coastal counties.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Gamebird operations, alongside all other poultry keepers, must take action now to protect their birds and limit the risk of further outbreaks.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Strong biosecurity remains our best defence, and we urge all keepers to take immediate steps to strengthen their measures.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The updated rules require daily disinfection of vehicles, the use of one feeding station per 60 birds, and daily cleaning of feeding and watering stations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Feeding is not permitted within 50 metres of water bodies used by wildfowl or within 500 metres of other kept birds.\n<\/p>\n
\n Game birds should be checked daily for signs of avian influenza during the open season and carcasses of dead birds must be reported to Defra and disposed of appropriately.\n<\/p>\n
\n All bird keepers are reminded that avian influenza is a notifiable disease. Suspected cases must be reported immediately to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).\n<\/p>\n
\n Gatherings of poultry remain banned including transporting birds from multiple locations in a single vehicle and dropping them off at multiple destinations.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UK Health Security Agency continues to advise that the risk to public health remains very low, and properly cooked poultry, game meat, and eggs remain safe to eat.\n<\/p>\n
\n A map of disease control zones, restrictions and advice can be found on the government website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The warning comes as the risk of bird flu increases, particularly in coastal counties along bird migration routes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-83775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}