Bird flu outbreak confirmed in South Derbyshire - new measures in place

An outbreak of avian influenza has been confirmed at a commercial premises in South Derbyshire.

The case of H5N1 avian influenza, also known as bird flu, was confirmed after a visit to the premises near Willington by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) on 17 November and a 3km and 10km Temporary Control Zone have been put in place around the infected premises to limit the risk of the disease spreading.

Derbyshire County Council trading standards officers are working closely with emergency planning colleagues and Derby City Council, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and APHA to control the outbreak.

County council highways officers are also liaising with colleagues in Derby, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Highways England to ensure road signs are in place to warn people when they are entering the Temporary Control Zones.  

Within the temporary control zones a range of controls are now in place to prevent the spread of disease. These include restrictions on the movement of poultry and other captive birds, carcasses, eggs, used poultry litter and manure.

All keepers of birds in the disease control zones must follow increased measures while the restrictions are in place as a legal requirement.

South Derbyshire residents can check the latest situation here, and if they are in a disease control zone here.

Further details on the restrictions that apply in the disease control zones are available on GOV.UK.

Derbyshire County Council trading standards officers, along with trading standards officers from Derby City Council will be out in the area over the next few days knocking on more than 8,000 doors in the 3km temporary control zone to identify any households keeping any type of bird to warn them of new restrictions and help to stop the spread of the disease. They will also identify unregistered birds/flocks and report them back to Defra through APHA. All agencies involved are encouraging all keepers to register their poultry, even if only kept as pets, so that APHA can contact them during an outbreak. This is a legal requirement for people who have 50 or more birds.

UK Health Security Agency has confirmed that the risk to public health is very low and the Food Standards Agency has said that bird flu poses a very low food safety risk for UK consumers. Properly cooked eggs and poultry are safe to eat.

19 November 2021