The Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the lead agency in the planning for, and co-ordinating the response to, a suspected or confirmed case of avian influenza in wild or domestic birds in the UK. Leeds City Council is co-operating with, and supporting Defra, in this process and assisting them with the necessary preparations.
Defra is compiling a mandatory national poultry register to identify the location of all large commercial poultry flocks (i.e. over fifty birds). The Council urges all poultry farmers who have not done so already to make contact with Defra via their helpline 0800 6341112 to register their premises.
There is also a voluntary scheme for owners of flocks of less than fifty birds to register with Defra. To help control an outbreak of avian influenza in Leeds it would also be important to pass key information to owners of small flocks (less than fifty birds). Therefore, if you own a small number of domestic poultry (or know someone else who keeps poultry) in the Leeds City Council area the Environmental Health staff would like to register the details, in advance, in order to ensure that owners of small flocks of poultry are provided with essential information.
To register poultry in the Leeds City Council area please contact env.health@leeds.gov.uk or write to the address below :
Millshaw Park Way
Churwell
Leeds
LS11 0LS
Please include as much of the following information as possible:
- Name of the poultry owner
- Address where the birds are kept
- Number and type of birds
- Contact Telephone Number
- Contact e-mail
For further information relating to Avian Influenza please use the links to the Defra or Health Protection Agency websites.