By registering, owners will receive crucial updates and guidance for bird care. In Scotland, all bird keepers must register from 1st September 2024.
During previous avian influenza outbreaks, it has been very difficult for Government to communicate directly with small backyard keepers to make them aware of temporary heightened disease control measures designed to protect public and animal health and the wider economy. These registration changes are a necessary step to help protect the health of kept birds and the general public from future avian disease risks. This approach will enable us all to be better prepared and protected against a future pandemic.
For more information, please see this press release.
How to register from 1st September
The Scottish Government will launch the new online register from 1st September 2024, allowing the registration process to take no more than several minutes for those with less than 50 birds. Bird keepers will have 3 months to register from this date. An alternative method of registering by telephone will also be available. More information will be available nearer 1st September at gov.scot/avianinfluenza.
GB consultation response
A joint GB-wide consultation took place (March – May 2023), facilitated by Defra on behalf of the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the UK Government.
The joint-government response and summary of responses to the poultry registration consultation was published this morning on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/poultry-and-other-captive-birds-registration-in-great-britain#full-publication-update-history
Legislation
The Avian Influenza (Preventive Measures) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2024 was signed by Scottish Ministers today and is due to be laid in Parliament on 21 March 2024, with a coming into force date of 1 September 2024.
Prior to this legislation coming into force, registration is currently mandatory for keepers of 50 or more poultry. However, voluntarily registration of under 50 birds is still largely encouraged. From 1 September 2024, these legislative changes will include keepers of less than 50 birds at any premises, and will require bird keepers to register the following information:
- the address and holding number (if it has one) of the premises;
- that person’s name and address and, if different, those of—
- the owner of the birds; and
- the occupier of the premises;
- the species of bird kept at the premises;
- the number of each species of bird kept at the premises;
- the purpose for which the birds are kept.
A keeper of 50 or more birds at any premises, must include the following additional information:
- the husbandry system in use at the premises, including whether any poultry are kept and if so whether for the production of—
- meat;
- hatching eggs;
- eggs for consumption;
- the incubator capacity of any hatchery;
- details of any seasonal stocking variations which might result in significant differences in the number or species of bird on the premises;
- the number of each species of bird with access to the open air.
The requirement to register does not apply to keepers of birds where the only birds kept at any premises belong to the order psittaciformes or passeriformes and are housed fully within a dwelling or within a structure on the premises with no access to the open air.