AI rules say range must be ‘cleaned’

AI rules say range must Free range producers will have to “clean” their range as well as their buildings if they are hit by a major disease outbreak. And that could mean ploughing and reseeding the entire area.

The time consuming and costly new demands have been revealed for the first time by BFREPA’s questioning of Government officials about contingency plans for dealing with Avian Influenza or Newcastle Disease.

As reported in the Ranger the association has become increasingly concerned about the implications of the plan in terms of costs to producers and dislocation of the egg industry as a whole. As part of our probing of the plans we asked Defra for details of cleansing demands on range areas used by birds caught up in an outbreak.

In its response Defra has revealed “Fields should be harrowed, rotovated or ploughed and left fallow for 56 days. Natural weathering, exposure to UV light, desiccation, dilution by rain and degradation by insects and micro-organisms, means that the virus should decay exponentially.”

The new demands come on top of a detailed cleansing operation which will, largely, be carried out at the expense of each producer affected. Defra has also revealed more details of how a farmer will be expected to deal with the disposal of manure and litter when a unit is cleared.

“Litter and manure must be treated by a method capable of killing the virus, as approved by a veterinary inspector,” says Defra. “This could be by incineration or steam treatment, burying deep enough to prevent access by vermin and wild birds or stacking and dampening to facilitate fermentation and leaving covered for 42 days or so and disposal at a licensed commercial landfill.”

The cost of all these processes—including that of final removal in sealed vehicles—will have to be met by individual producers.

But apart from the expense also alarming is the extent of time that an affected unit will be out of business. In response to a direct question on this issue Defra says that re-stocking will be allowed 21 days after cleansing and disinfection has been completed. But with a 42 day requirement on manure treatment and 56 days before the range can be re-used it is obvious that shutdown could run into months. An affected producer would meanwhile face the dilemma of when it would be safe to order pullets, even assuming that in a major disease outbreak any birds were immediately available. And each time a new outbreak occurs in a locality movement restrictions will be extended for another 30 days.

The BFREPA questions have also revealed that the Government is to introduce a new law that will allow even more restrictions to be placed on the industry in the event of an AI or ND outbreak.

On top of Protection Zones and Surveillance Zones around infected areas there are also to be regional and national Control Zones which will allow officials to bring the industry to a standstill while it evaluates the extent of an outbreak.

“The need for such zones would depend on the circumstances of the outbreak,” says Defra. “Movement of poultry and eggs within the Control Zone may be necessary as long as producers could meet the requirements of specific licenses or general movement conditions contained in the legislation.”

In the new responses Defra again sets its face against any form of meaningful compensation. It is Government policy that farmers should make their own arrangements to avoid a financial disaster through insurance. But even Defra admits that no cover is available. “We have a research project under way to look at how farmers and insurers can address market failure in this area,” officials say.

“The more we discover about the Government’s plans the more worrying they become,” commented association chairman Tom Vesey. “It is very clear that in the event of an outbreak the livelihood of affected producers will be at stake. The costs of cleaning up even a medium sized unit to official satisfaction will be staggering. “Even if a producer is in a financial position to get back into business the time to get clearance and to find new flocks will be months. And those are months without any income whatsoever. The implications of what we have revealed so far are deeply worrying.”