OK. Hello and welcome to this lecture on, it's basically an update on avian influenza currently in the UK. We'll have a look at a little look at Europe as well.

My name's Ben South. I'm a, a commercial poultry vet, predominantly in the, the south of England, but work for, a, a national, international, poultry veterinary team called Saint David's. So, the idea of this lecture, this morning, really, is to give, give you an idea, and sort of, make you understand the importance of avian influenza at the moment.

I know if you're not practising within the poultry sector, you may not be quite aware of, of what's going on. And so they really got 4 quite simple, Overview, tasks today. One is just to understand, really, avian influenza and how it influences the commercial poultry sector here in the UK, because it's, it's, you know, it's kept relatively quiet within the media, but I think it's important that as, as vets, we understand.

What the economic cost is to the, to the industry, and then, how important, Avian influenza is, and, and current distribution and prevalence. So, obviously, this is, as I speak, and as I, as I've written the presentation, but it's continually updating, and we're, we're getting, currently, it's January, and we're, we're seeing more and more outbreaks, you know, on a daily basis. So, this is just as it stands currently.

I think it's important for you to recognise, how communication between clients, educating certainly backyard and small, smallholder owners in terms of biosecurity, passing on. Your knowledge to, to try and explain to them the importance of, of avian influenza. And really how, how those smaller flocks, how they have such an important role within our, our national control programme.

And it may not be that. They are truly educated on that side of things, and that might be a, a, an error in terms of, advertising and communication. But as vets, I think it's important that, that you're able to, just have a background information and a background understanding so that you can support them, as and when you see them.

So I'm not gonna . Go from the absolute beginning in terms of virology, but I think we all understand in terms of influenza, avian influenza's been around for, for a for a time. And it's, it, it's usually passes through the UK.

We have a few outbreaks, maybe in the winter time. Certainly in the last 5, 10 years, it's definitely been a, a disease that we've seen with migratory birds. This year, from, from through the summer and into this winter, it's been very different, and we've had consistent number of positive outbreaks through the summer and into, into this winter period.

So, just, just before we carry on, the, APHA deem a, an avian influenza year from October to October, because it was always a, a winter problem. To get statistical analysis, or make it more easy to, analyse, the year started, or the avian influenza year started in October, and covered the winter until the following October. So, a lot of this information would be, up until October this year, or, sorry, October 2022.

And we now started the new avian influenza year, essentially in terms of recording outbreaks and recording its prevalence. So. All through the summer last year, leading up to October this in 2022, we had probably actually over 156 confirmed cases in kept poultry in the UK.

Now, compare that to previous years where really we'd have nothing through the summer, and maybe 5 to 10 cases in sort of late September, early October, as, as migratory birds came in. And then through the winter period, we may get a sort of a, a small splattering of, of outbreaks. And it, it was always linked with, Passage of migratory birds from, from the, the northern, reaches of the Antarctic Circle, coming down into the UK for the winter period, and then as those birds move back again across into Northern Europe and then out into Russia.

This year, as I said, it, it, we really, are seeing it, within the wild bird population in the UK. So, deaths, in terms of wild bird deaths in this, in this year, we've had a, a, an enormous increase in positive wild bird deaths. And these aren't migratory birds, these are resident waterfowl, resident herring gulls, geese.

So they're, they are not predomin predominantly the migratory birds now. . With all that's going on, the APHA have had time, you know, the very early on to start going through epidemiology and looking at the virus.

And it, it seems to be one genome. It's not varying at all. It's, it's staying within the population, but it's, it has a very effective, or it is a very effective and very efficient transmission.

The infectious pressure, or the infection pressure in, in the wild birds is very high. Certainly within certain regions of the UK as well. And they, it, it seems to be surviving a long time in the environment, usually in cold, dark, damp, wet areas, and.

The birds, certainly commercial birds need a very small amount of virus for it to become very lethal, for a viremia to, to, to start, . So, it, I mean, in terms of avian influenza, I suppose, what, what's the risk to the UK? You know, why, why are we concerned about it?

Why are we having to control it? And, and, I mean, ultimately, like with all, animal viruses, I suppose, or, or, control of, of viral spread through populations. You know, we are fundamentally concerned about public health, the risk of, an influenza pandemic or, outbreak here in the UK.

Avian influenza is a zoonosis, so we do, we have, you know, H5N1 in Asia. Although it's the same virus, it is slightly more, effective at crossing into the, human population. We've only seen one, I think, outbreak in humans, here in the UK in the last year.

So, it is. You know, it does have the, ability to cross into, into humans. And obviously, we are trying to minimise that potential for human infection as much as possible.

And that, certainly is the reason why a lot of the biosecurity measures are, are put in place. But also, we're obviously, Also thinking about bird health and welfare, so. In the commercial sector, we are thinking about securing the UK population of, of chickens and, and, and fowl.

So that includes the broiler breeders. So these are. Highly prized genetic flocks that are producing chicks and eggs that will then go on to either produce more breeding stock, or the chicks that are then reared for us for our own consumption.

So, we're talking what we call parent flocks, grandparent flocks, and, and that, those genetic lines of, of birds that are. Worth a lot to the industry, you know, they, they are producing very valuable eggs, and so we, we are needing to secure that. And across the world, the UK has some of the most prized genetic breeders, and certainly in the, in the meat industry.

We're also looking at turkeys, you know, leading up to Christmas, the turkey industry has been devastated, really, with, with avian influenza. Meat availability. And then also, remember, the turkeys that are produced from meat also need parents and grandparents.

So, the, again, the genetic lines, are, are, are very vulnerable and are trying to be, you know, needing to be protected. We have a huge free range laying sector here in the UK. We've completely phased out battery cages.

We're phasing out, colony cages by, by, you know, in the next couple of years, and we'll be predominantly be barn and free-range, laying. The loss of production with a, with an outbreak is, is huge. If it, if premises goes down with avian influenza, all poultry within, on that site will be, euthanized and removed.

And those, those premises will not be restocked immediately, because there will not be the chicks out there to, ready to restock those, those, those buildings. So, you can imagine, A laying farm, or laying birds, sorry, will only start laying at around 2 weeks of age. And if, if a farm hasn't, you know, isn't ready, and, and the birds all, all get killed from influenza, there is at least a 2 week delay, plus.

Waiting for those new birds to arrive to then start laying. So, you know, we're talking about not only livestock loss, but the livelihoods of the farmers and the managers that are, and the companies that are running that business. We're talking about huge multi-million pound contracts from, rearing farms and, and, and hatcheries, and processing plants and supermarkets, you know, and we'll, they're all, and they have been severely.

influenced by the, the recent outbreaks of, of over influenza and, and this, the severe prevalence that's we're seeing with it. And then aside of the, the commercial side, we're then talking about trade, you know, the impact of exporting and, and, our poultry produce. There's a huge amount of, of egg and, and dale chicks that are, exported live.

Into the EU, across into South America, and all these trade routes will be are severely compromised because of the presence of, of avian influenza here in the UK. And, you know, we're, we're talking huge sums of money in 2001, you know, the, the meat sector, the meat poultry sector alone, not, we're not talking eggs, we're not talking turkeys or anything like that. Just the, the broiler meat industry was.

Over 162 million pounds in, in 2001. So, it's not a, it's not a small industry in the slightest. So again we're talking.

2021, 2022 season, which is again October to October. This was the breakdown of, of positive cases, in the UK. So, The, I suppose the, the importance, of this bit of the data is just to show you how, how much of an effect a small number of birds, certainly in the, in the backyard sector has on the industry.

So, if we look at the, population, I suppose, there's an estimated population of around 3 million birds in the UK that are kept as backyard pets, smallholders. Compare that to, you know, any of the major chicken industry sectors, and it's, it's a very small proportion, but, In terms of positive outbreaks and positive a forza cases, there was a, you know, almost 50% of those positive cases last year were in smallholders' backyard flocks. And now, that has a huge impact on, any poultry industry within that area.

So, as soon as you have an infected premises. There's an immediate 3 kilometre zone, and a 10 kilometre zone that is put in place that, puts severe restrictions on any poultry premises within those areas, in terms of moving poultry products, whether it's live birds, dead birds, eggs, chicks, in feed, in and out of those zones. And it takes a huge, amount of effort for both vets and the industry to get licences.

You know, trying to work out logistics, the risk of those premises is becoming infected because of the, the, the, the positive case near them. You know, there, there's a huge backlash from every single infected zone that comes up. There's a huge backlash and a huge amount of time and effort to try and until that zone is then, revoked and cleared.

So, as you can see that, you know, The whole of the poultry sector, you know, we're talking chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese, you know, in terms of infections, was less than just that very small amount of backyard and, and small hole of, frocks last year. And. From October through into the winter period now, we've, you know, we've seen a lot of, a lot more cases.

The, the split is, has changed slightly. We're starting to see a few more, certainly in Norfolk and Suffolk, we've seen a lot more, poultry sites go down. But there's still the, the, constant supply of, of backyard flocks that are becoming positive.

And we know we're talking 2 or 3 birds, whereas a lot of these sites, you know, we're talking 40, 50,000 birds. So, you know, a very small number of birds hold a lot of responsibility for, for a very large sector. And, you know, the, the majority of owners, certainly chicken owners, you know, they are responsible.

They will be. Understanding of, of what, what's going on, but I think it's, it's important to, to just re-educate and, and. Make those clients aware of, of the importance of their role in, in avian influenza control.

This is just the, the similar information, just put in a slightly different context. This is taken from, Christine Midleness's, update in, in the end of November. So we've got the new avian influenza year 2022, 2023 in there as well, which is the red.

And you can see, you know, the, the backyard birds are still. Very important, in, in terms of the, the number of infected premises that they are, they are showing. So, you know, there's some, there's plenty of pretty pictures out there, or, or unpretty pitches in terms of, number of cases.

So, the left-hand side map is, is all, all poultry cases that were positive from, again, that October to October year, last year. Obviously, it's, it's, it's more of a, a, a, a total, Showing in terms of like, you know, the extent to which avian influenza is, is across the UK, you know, it's, it's from the tips of Cornwall the way up to the Outer Hebrides, you know, it's, it's showing us that the infection is throughout the UK and endemic within the wild bird population. And then the map on the right here is, is actually, I, this was probably about 4 or 5 days ago, this map was taken from the, the APHA website, so.

Even in the last two days, we've had 3 more cases, one in Hereford, a couple more in Norfolk, and you can see that that area in Norfolk, very high density area of, of, of chicken growing, both turkeys, geese, waterfowl, and they seem to be most susceptible in terms of avian influenza, outbreaks. But again, you can see that the distribution is, is far and wide. And also concentrated within areas that do have high density, poultry production.

Hopefully you're aware that. Beginning of November, we had, a housing order put in place. So that was on top of the National Control programme, where, by law, anyone who kept or keeps poultry, whether it's one bird or, a quarter of a million birds, those birds need to be housed, without access to, outdoor areas where wild birds also have access.

So that, that housing order came in place around that's 45 week mark. And since then we have had a drop off in positive outbreaks. The, you know, there is a correlation with that control, programme.

However, we, we also have seen, you know, the turkey industry is, is much smaller this time of year, but biosecurity is certainly increasing in, in, And being Policed much more carefully since that, that housing order has, has come into place. And this is just to, to show you that actually, since October, so this is October to December, these are positive cases within the wild bird, population. Again, we're talking, Endemic species of birds.

So, geese, certain duck species, predominantly gulls. So, herring gulls, black-back gulls, the birds that are moving from the coastlines during the winter inland onto farming, cultivated farming land, they seem to be quite, adept at, at, Spreading avian influenza rather than dying from it. So, again, none of these outbreaks have been within migrant species so far, which shows you that we have got an endemic wild bird infection.

OK, so this is, just to give you an idea of how the spread of avian influenza has been through the whole of Europe. You know, we are not just the only ones dealing with a pretty severe outbreak this, this winter. What it doesn't show is actually what's going on across the Atlantic, cause the Americas are also seeing quite severe, avian influenza outbreaks as well.

Certainly North America's, but. You know, it's quite a, a zoomed out map, but you get the idea that actually, the, the, so I think the blue is, wild birds, and the pink is, poultry premises. So, although there's a lot of overlap, you can't really tell what's going on here.

It's, it's more the general distribution, and it's, you know, across the, the top of Northern Europe. Along those seabird corridors. And we are, obviously, having a big role in terms of avianfluenza outbreak.

France is also struggling. Germany, Holland, and, you know, the, as a whole, I think, well over 3000 outbreaks in poultry, in the last October year. There's been a huge number of commercial birds culled, you know, it's not, it's not just the birds that are dying from the, the virus itself, but.

To control those those viral spreads, bids on premises that are positive will be culled. Well over 65 million birds in the commercial sector across Europe have been culled in that last avian flurenza year. And as a total, you know, 36 countries have been positive or shown positive outbreaks in the poultry sector.

So at the moment, as it stands, you know, we are, we are at the beginning of January. The, the current risk level hasn't changed since the beginning of November. Wild birds is a very high risk.

The, the events, or positive events are occurring regularly. Wild birds are being found on the coastline. Certainly, across cultivated land, brought in, you know, we're only relying on birds that are being brought in and, and.

Identified by members of the public. So, there is, a far greater number of birds that have actually been recorded dying from, avian influenza in the wild. And, you know, reports from fishermen, people who are, are moving through, various, you know, the Bristol Channel, are seeing high numbers of, dead birds, all the way through from the end of summer to, to now.

I know that the, the, Resident colonies of guillemots and razorbills up on the north, northeast coasts have been decimated with the virus. And so it's safe to say that any access to wild bird is a risk to, domestic poultry. And then we have two categories of, of, of poultry risk really, so the sites that are .

Have poor biosecurity, or there are specific events which breach that biosecurity, like flooding events, breakages of housing, that sort of thing. The, the risk is high, and at its highest, for, for those birds in terms of avian influenza infection. Remember, a very small amount of virus can lead to a, to a positive case.

And then the, the lowest risk level at the moment is still high or medium. And that would be a, a poultry site that has the best biosecurity it can, it can, apply, and that there's been no breaches. So, they're the three risk level categories at the moment that the, the UK are, are, are under.

And quite a nice quote that's sort of been, used a lot, certainly. And, Sort of shows you the importance of biosecurity, which we'll we'll come on to in a minute. But the, the, the act of housing birds out away from the environment, away from outside, reduces your risk of, of infection by 2, but actually, having good biosecurity and, making processes to, to, to secure and make sure that, your risk to movement in and out of your poultry houses is, is as minimal as possible, provides up to, you know, 44 times reduction risk in avian influenza.

Now I'm not sure how they've worked that out, but it's certainly being used as a, as a guide, by the APHA, and it's quite a nice thing to, to sort of explain how important biosecurity is to backyard, owners and flocks. And I remember that, you know, I've said it before, the avian flu is, is resident, or seems to be resident in our wild bird species. So we, we are at the highest level of, of, of concern at the moment in the UK.

We've spoken about the housing order that, that, that came in, and, and really, the information I think that is provided to backyard owners is, is, Probably not frequent enough to make them understand that the housing order is important, and, and it continues until, you know, until the APHA say it's been lifted, you know, just because the weather becomes nicer in March, does not mean that the housing order, is lifted, so. This means all birdkeepers, whether you have a single bird all the way up to the, the biggest commercial flocks we have, are required by law to take, biosecurity precautions, as well as housing their birds to, to stop the interaction between wild birds and commercial poultry. And as well as the housing order.

You know, we have a national prevention zone at the moment, which means that all biosecurity needs to be at strengthened and at its highest right now, in the UK. So clients, certainly, you know, backyards and, and smallholding flocks, you know, we're talking birds. Anyone who's got less than 50 birds, really, those sort of smaller flocks.

You know, they must be kept aware by yourselves, you know, educated in the housing order and understand that it is compulsory for everyone. The, the greatest risk to those housed birds is, is brought biosecurity, which we'll discuss in a minute. The, the introduction.

Of, of diseases and the majority of the, the positive cases we're seeing in the UK have come from very small, maybe a, a single event that's breached that biosecurity that's in place. I, you know, it does happen, there is human error, but it, a lot of, you know, majority of the outbreaks have been linked to a single. failure in biosecurity, whether it's, a leaking roof, someone walking into the sheds without changing overalls or changing boots, that they've all been linked to, to a, a, a single specific event.

The majority of, of infected premises is, it's been, introduction from wild birds. So, probably via a fomite of some sort, like humans or, or vehicles. And it's really we need to sort of start thinking about changing.

Backyard clients' mindsets that we're not, you know, it's not a, it shouldn't be a, a hassle. It shouldn't be, deemed, poor welfare to lock birds away and shut them up. You know, it's, we are trying to safeguard not only human health, but the national commercial flock health as well.

And it, and it's a huge economic importance to do so. One thing that, certainly hasn't changed yet, but as, as vets in the industry, you know, I'm always trying to encourage small owners that have less than 50 birds to register onto the, the national GV poultry list. Now, the law states that, anyone who has more than 50 birds It's compulsory for them to register, but, and anyone who has less than 50 birds, it's, it's a voluntary act.

It's free, but really that, you know, I think that should be changed now that we are in the situation we're in. You know, anyone who keeps poultry on a domestic scale should register them with the APHA. And this allows them, the APA, to understand where all poultry are in the UK.

And so when we have a, an infected premises that goes down. We can then, well the the the the government can then. Go to those poultry sites where they know, are in, in the 3 kilometre zone.

Talk to them, check biosecurity, and that prevents further spread. You know, a lot of the outbreaks in Norfolk have been clusters of, of infected premises where the, the, the spread has been. From, from one closed premises to another, and so, having an understanding of where all the poultry are in the UK and where they're being kept, is very important for us to be able to control the, the viral spread.

So what, what are we talking in terms of threats, threats and biosecurity? So, can you imagine you've got a small coope in the, in the, in the garden of, of, of a, a, you know, suburban home. You know, what, what's, what's the problem in terms of, threats onto those.

Birds. Well, you know, ultimately, anything that's moving from the outside to the inside that building where the birds are, has the potential to spread virus. So we, we, we're certainly thinking wild birds, we're looking at windborne, water movements, any other animals that are moving in and out with the birds.

So, certainly, rodents would, would play, play a big role in terms of, fomite, transfer. Obviously, the, the staff members, if they're more than one person going in and looking after the birds, if the birds are kept at a, farm shop or an attraction, something like that, you know, is everyone in that, in that, on that site understanding of, of the biosecurity measures that, that need to be in place? Food deliveries, other activities that might occur in and around the poultry premises.

And, you know, anything, like I said, that's going to be moving potentially viral, load from the outside into poultry zones is a threat to, to those birds. And. So, sort of created this table looking at, infected premises here in the UK where the failures of biosecurity have been that have led to breakdowns in terms of influenza.

And so, you know. Visitors, staff members that are coming onto the site, failing to adhere to biosecurity, protocols, seems to be quite a big component in terms of viral spread, you know, on the boots soles of your shoes. Obviously, the, the easiest thing to do is avoid unnecessary visitors to the birds.

If you do need to go into the poultry area, footwear must be changed. Foot dips should be available, and really coveralls. So, all in one overalls should be put on to just enter the bird area and then taken off again as you leave the bird area.

. Flooding events, water ingress into the house, these things, certainly have a role to play in terms of, of, of viral movement. Imagine if wild birds are, are defecating on the roof of the sheds, rain washes it down, enters the house, and, and quickly, the virus becomes, available for your, for the commercial poultry or domestic poultry to, to get hold of. .

Rodent movement has certainly been a a a big important role in terms of as a fomite, so preventing. Spilled feed, trying not to, feed the birds ad lib, so there's not food on the ground all the time. Feed and water should not be outside.

They should be within the, the house itself, where the birds are kept. And remember that, we've had a housing order now, every winter for the last, 5 years, probably, so, you know, clients that are complaining or saying, oh, we haven't got enough space in the coop, it's tight, it's small, you know, the birds are, are, are kept up. Well, really they need to start investing in in something more suitable for allowing the birds to be housed in the winter because.

It's not gonna change. It's not gonna change quickly. And so investing in biosecurity, new housing to allow that to be an easier process is, is certainly important.

So, you know, it's not a one-off anymore. And, you know, those things can easily be, changed and, and, improved on, on these backyard sites. Hygiene is a massive one, you know, ensuring that both the houses, equipment and, and things that are moving from outside to inside are kept clean.

We've spoken about wild birds, they're they're present around the coop. Avoiding feeding outside is certainly gonna not attract wild birds in. If there is an issue with, with birds present, you know, trying to take actions to prevent them from sitting on the coops, .

And again, you know, holes and breaches between outside and inside the coop. Any unnecessary holes should be filled up. If it, if the holes are there for ventilation, then we need to see some kind of mesh or netting over those holes.

And remember, this is not just, me telling you what biosecurity, smallholders and backyard flocks should do. This is happening across the commercial industry, so. Houses that are 90, 90 metres long, and, you know, 20 metres high are getting this sort of, change.

You know, we've got sites where the, the whole of the ridge is open, and farmers are spending huge sums of money to mesh and net those areas. So. If they are doing that, you know, we also need the person with the two bird coop to be doing that as well.

You know, it's not a, it's, it's, it's not that we are targeting backyard flocks. The whole industry is doing this. So, it's, it's, it's a case of, again, educating those clients that it's not, we're not trying to, make it hard just for them.

You know, it's, it's, it's important everywhere, for anyone who has birds. So, this is, certainly where the industry is sitting at the moment in terms of, how the biosecurity would work on a site. So anywhere where the birds aren't is classified as dirty, a general area.

So this is be the yard, this would be the garden, this would be the area outside of, the, the poultry zone. So, I'm gonna discuss backyard flocks now, so. I presume most flocks would have some kind of housing coupe with a, with a fenced off run.

Now that fenced off run should be fully netted, from ground all the way over the top. And if it can include the coupe as well, that's ideal. Again, that mesh needs to be less than 25 mils in, in, in terms of the, squareness of the holes, and that's to stop.

Birds being able to, to enter that, that area, from, from that general dirty area. There, there should be and must be really, an intermediate zone. So, this is an area that is not, not poultry and not dirty.

And it's where, you know, it can be a, a, a, a shed with two doors. It could be an area that is just, marked off and, kept dry. But it's an area where clients can take off their.

Dirty boots, change into, footwear that is, suitable for them entering the poultry area. Now, on commercial sites, we, we talk about two barriers, two step over barriers where actually, footwear's being changed twice before entering the, the chickens. And that is really gold standard biosecurity at this time.

As well as footwear change, we're looking at, putting on coveralls or, or, complete overalls to enter the bird area. And remember, it's, these things are being put on to go in and taken off to go and come out. And it's not, you know, we are trying to do our best to prevent the movement of virus on your, on your shoes, on your person into that bird area.

. At the, at those areas, at those crossover points within the intermediate zone, there should be foot dip present with, obviously, death-approved disinfectants, that's kept clean, replaced, frequently, because of organic matter presence will reduce the, the, efficacy of that bio of that detergent. And then we have the, the clean area which is specific to poultry, so that could include the poultry house and the and the the netted run, or it could just be the poultry house. But at no point should you be going from a dirty area, straight into the clean area without any kind of, removal of shoes, changing of, of, of outer, outer gear.

That is the, the number one, route for viral spread and, and inclusion and introduction into a poultry shed. And remember, this is where the commercial injury is sitting. You've got free range guys, we've got sites that are spending vast amounts of money to invest in this setup, this sort of biosecurity set up, to have two step over barriers, 3 zones, and, and, you know, it's.

It's, it's not cheap to do things, you know, buying wellies for 10 sheds, for 5 members of staff. You can imagine it's, it's, you know, it racks up. And, but it is by far the most important thing to invest in at this current time.

. Some other areas of biosecurity that, you know, the industry are really putting pressure on farmers to do, and really the backyard sites should be doing it as well, is, is certainly record taking, you know, making a note in a diary somewhere, the number of birds that die, who comes onto the site, when they come onto the site, where they've been previously, any movement of birds either on or off the site. Certainly feed, if it's coming on the back of a lorry, where the, where the feed lorry's been and where it's going. Always check the DFA approved disinfectant list online.

Keep, keep the, the, the disinfectants fresh. You know, really they should be replaced daily. And that's both foot dips and potentially a, a handheld sprayer if, if cars are moving in and out of, of poultry zones.

Using those disinfectants at the correct dilution rate is obviously very important. The prevention of, of poultry gaining access to standing water, ditches, open, you know, if the netted coop has a pond in it, really, that should be removed from the netted area. No feed or water outside of the, of the, the building.

And obviously, making sure that all of this biosecurity is kept in place. Regularly adhered to until the housing order has been lifted. And, you know, it will be lifted at some point, and it's usually towards the end of March, beginning of April.

But it's important to keep note of when, and, you know, we certainly get emails about it. . Just to make note that.

Unlike previous years, the failure to, to, to adhere to the housing order, it's much easier for, local authorities now to find and potentially imprison, people who are not adhering to those housing order rules. You know, it is law, it is compulsory, and it's, like I said earlier, it's for the importance of human health and the commercial economy, to do so. So.

Although probably in previous years, you know, I've driven across the countryside and seen people who are not housing birds during the housing order and it's highly frustrating, you know, they can be very close to quite big commercial sites. It was always used to go through trading standards and, and it was a bit of a nightmare, but this year it's, it's much easier for people to become, fined and, and caught out. And that's the local authorities doing that.

So, as a bit of an overview, obviously, this is, as I talk now, you know, things might change in, in the next month, certainly with outbreaks. You know, we've had 3 in the last 24 hours. So it's, it's definitely current.

We've probably seen the worst of it, this year, certainly in, in, you know, back end of October, September, we were getting 4 or 5 outbreaks a day, and I'm sure you're receiving emails about it, and you know, it's, it was very severe and, and absolutely devastating for those, farmers involved, certainly across Suffolk and Norfolk. It's led to huge, significant economic loss, live bird losses. We are seeing a, a general decrease in infected premises at the moment since that housing order came into play in, in early November.

Biosecurity. All, pretty much all these, these premises that have had issues, backyard as well as commercial, have been very small breaches in, in biosecurity. Remember, only a small amount of virus is needed to set up a, a viremia and, and start killing birds, and they do die very and spectacularly, you know, very quickly.

I think it's important to encourage those small bird owners, the, so the owners with small numbers of birds to register those flocks, even if they just keep one bird in, in their back garden, so that the APHA can easily map poultry presence and, and understand it's, where clusters of poultry are. Continue to reinforce the importance of, of the housing order, enforce the importance of, of maintaining good biosecurity. And, you know, we need to start changing the mindset of, of backyard domestic flock owners, you know, yes, they are pets, yes, they are family importance pets, but they are still poultry, they're still.

For have the potential to, spread avian influenza to commercial flocks, and, you know, they need to understand the, the, their importance and their role in, in national control programme really. And, you know, I'm I'm sure you're aware, certainly through emails, but you can keep up to date with all the outbreaks through the government website. There's lots of interactive areas, there's the map that's, that's quite useful.

If there are new outbreaks put in place, you can just type in your postcode and it can let you know whether you're near or or within a surveillance zone. So I, I hope that has sort of educated you a little bit about what, what we're dealing with at the moment in terms of influenza, and I, and I hope that you can spread that knowledge on to, to backyard and and small holder flocks. Thank you for listening and yeah.