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Defra needs you to help protect your community from bird flu
Last winter the UK experienced several outbreaks of avian influenza - better known as bird flu. This highly contagious disease affects birds including chickens, ducks and geese, and can be fatal to them, devastating farmers’ livelihoods. It is just as much of a risk to those with a few chickens in a back garden as to commercial farmers and anyone who keeps chickens, ducks or geese needs to be aware of the risk and take steps now to address it.
Hundreds of thousands of people across the UK keep chickens in their gardens and it is likely there are many who do in your community. The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is running a campaign asking anyone who keeps birds to take action to protect them against this devastating disease, and by doing so help prevent bird flu spreading and protect the livelihoods of farmers across the country.
Defra is asking local councils to share their advice on bird flu in their respective communities - for example on noticeboards, on social media, or in newsletters.
As a first step, to download and display wherever you can a poster outlining actions keepers can take - available to download and print from here.