Poultry Disease Contingency Plans

Originally from: mona parr
                        
Poultry disease contingency plans
Revised versions of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra\x{2019}s) Foot and Mouth Disease Contingency Plan and Avian Influenza and Newcastle Disease Contingency Plans were laid before Parliament last week. The Plans were laid in accordance with Section 18 of the Animal Health Act 2002. They set out the operational arrangements Defra intends to put in place to deal with any occurrence of Foot and Mouth Disease, Avian Influenza or Newcastle Disease and record the policy on which the operational arrangements are based.

Avian Influenza (highly pathogenic) is the disease that has resulted in poultry by the million being culled in Asia and it also affects other birds. Newcastle Disease also affects poultry and other birds. Controls would apply to domestic fowls, turkeys, geese, ducks, guinea fowls, quails, pigeons, ratites (e.g. ostriches), pheasants and partridges reared or kept in captivity for breeding, the production of meat or eggs for consumption or eggs for restocking supplies of game. The diseases are most likely to be introduced by contact with migrating wild birds, in particular their faeces and contamination of equipment and feeders. Good biosecurity is essential to stop any disease spreading.

The following policies would be applied by Defra on confirmation of Avian Influenza:

· An Infected Area will be declared with a minimum radius of 10km around Infected Premises and will remain in place for at least 30 days after preliminary cleansing and disinfection of all infected places. An Infected Area consists of a Protection Zone with a minimum radius of 3 km contained within a surveillance zone with a minimum radius of 10km.
Movement restrictions will be applied on poultry, eggs, manure and used litter within the Infected Area.
Diseased and other poultry on the Infected Premises will be slaughtered quickly.
Export health certificates for live poultry and hatching eggs will be withdrawn.
Dangerous contacts will be identified. Where the risk of exposure to virus is high, the poultry will be slaughtered and laboratory samples taken to check for disease. Where the risk is assessed as not high, quarantine restriction will apply for 21 days with regular veterinary visits undertaken.
In the Protection Zone all poultry will be required to be kept in their living quarters or other place where they can be isolated. There is a Disease Control (Slaughter) Protocol for use in the event of a pre-emptive (or firebreak) cull. In the event of an outbreak of Avian Influenza, possible vaccination of rare breeds and endangered species would take place. However, there is no vaccination for Avian Influenza licensed for use in Europe at present. In the event of an outbreak of Newcastle Disease the imposition of a compulsory vaccination zone would be ordered. There is a very effective vaccine readily available against Newcastle Disease. Peter Bradnock, Chief Executive of the British Poultry Council told NFU Countryside: \x{201C}Overall, to have such a plan is excellent and it is extremely valuable to see the number of specialist groups that would spring into action should disease be suspected. However, this plan determines the areas of responsibility and bureaucracy, what is not included is actual detail on the practicalities of dealing with disease and what slaughter methods would be used. The state veterinarians would be faced with buildings of thousands of birds in the commercial sector and how culling is carried out must be acceptable to the public and animal welfare organisations.\x{201D} The FMD Plan can be accessed on the Defra website at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/footandmouth/contingency/index.htm The Avian Influenza Plan is at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/disease/avianinfluenza.htm And the Newcastle Disease Plan can be seen at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/disease/newcastled.htm