Bolton Council warns bird keepers about rule changes

The new regulations were introduced last month and will need all bird keepers to register their flocks, regardless of their size.

Previously only people keeping 50 or more poultry were required to register them, but the changes have been brought in after what experts say was the UK’s worst outbreak of bird flu.

A Bolton Council spokesperson said: “By registering their birds, keepers will ensure they receive important updates relevant to them, such as on any local avian disease outbreaks and information on biosecurity rules to help protect their flocks.”

Bolton Council says people need to register their birds with trading standards (Image: Newsquest)

The most recent avian flu outbreak has seen more than 360 cases confirmed across Britain since late October 2021.

Some of this has included cases found in backyard flocks.

The new rules will mean that bird owners in Bolton will need to provide information to the council’s trading standards department.

This information includes the owner’s contact details, the location where birds are kept and details of the birds, such as species, number and what they are kept for.

The information must be updated annually.

The new rules cover owners of backyard flocks, birds of prey and pigeon fanciers.

But they do not affect caged pet birds, excluding any poultry species, kept entirely inside a house, like a pet parrot, canary or budgie.

This comes not long after the Animal and Plant Health Agency reported in February this year that there was evidence avian flu, better known as bird flu, had jumped to other species.

But speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, scientific services director Professor Ian Brown said it was still primarily a virus that affected birds.

Professor Brown said: “We’ve recently detected events both here in and around the world, evidence that this virus can on certain occasions jump into other species.

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“To be clear, though, this is still a bird virus essentially, that wants to be in birds.”

He added: “These animals, these are wild mammals, animals that scavenge on sick and dead birds and there’s a lot of dead wild birds at the moment due to the bird flu presence around the globe, and those animals consuming and being exposed to very high quantities of virus and that’s leading to some spillover infection.

“What we don’t have any evidence of is that it can then go from fox to fox or otter to otter, so these are what we call dead-end infections does.”

Anyone in Bolton who needs to register their birds can email trading.standards@bolton.go.uk.