The free range egg sector has highlighted their frustration with the new housing order for England as the country's largest ever bird flu outbreak continues.
A national housing order will be introduced across England only on Monday 7 November, making it a legal requirement to house flocks.
The move legally requires all bird keepers to keep their birds indoors and to follow stringent biosecurity measures to help protect their flocks from the disease, regardless of type or size.
UK Chief Veterinary Officer, Christine Middlemiss said: “We are now facing this year, the largest ever outbreak of bird flu and are seeing rapid escalation in the number of cases on commercial farms and in backyard birds across England.
"The risk of kept birds being exposed to disease has reached a point where it is now necessary for all birds to be housed until further notice."
Over 200 cases of avian influenza have been confirmed since late October 2021. The introduction of the housing measures comes after the disease was detected at over 70 sites since the start of October, as well as multiple reports of AI in wild birds.
As the mandatory housing order only applies to England, it has severe implications for the labelling of free range eggs.
And whilst most in the sector agrees with the need for a housing order, it is the consequences arising from the end of the 16 week derogation that producers need to see resolved.
Current EU regulations give a derogation to egg producers, allowing eggs to maintain their free-range status for 16 weeks – after that, they have to be labelled as barn.
In previous housing orders, the UK has maintained an 'all in, all out' policy which meant all eggs were labelled as barn after the 16-week derogation had ended.
Previously, retailers put signs on shelves explaining the housing order, and egg boxes carried a discrete message that they were officially labelled as barn.
Free range egg producers, already losing up to £10 a bird, maintained their premiums and could navigate the housing order without too many financial implications.
Unless Scotland and Wales follow suit, as each are large producers of free range eggs, there will be some confusion surrounding the labelling of eggs.
The UK follows EU rules which has draft legislation in progress that would allow EU egg producers to keep their free range status for as long as an official housing order is in place.
Defra has no plans to follow this legislation, meaning that English egg producers would be at a disadvantage when the derogation ends.
Most egg producers would agree that a housing order is needed, although most outbreaks have been in housed birds, including a 300,000 colony egg-laying unit and a 147,000 colony housing unit.
Free range producers have raised their biosecurity standards but have also been left with reduced insurance or no insurance as underwriters have exited the market.
Steven Smout, head of Agriculture at McLarens global loss adjusters explained: “If you look back at the origins of Covid, whilst they may be unclear, the general accepted wisdom is that it was spread from animals.
"That is why avian influenza demands such strict measures, because of the risk of it transferring to humans in the same way.”
The situation is dire for other poultry sectors as well and not just egg producers, with ducks, geese, and turkeys particularly susceptible to avian influenza.
The virus is wiping out a massive percentage of the fresh turkey market for this Christmas, which will create a shortage of fresh turkeys during the festive season. At the same time, broiler breeders have also been hit hard, with large units culled.
A source told FarmingUK that three million of the four and a half million farm fresh Christmas turkeys had been culled, likely leading to shortages during the festive season.
Robert Gooch, CEO of BFREPA (British Free Range Egg Producers Association), told FarmingUK that the body's approach had always been 'all in, or all out' when it came to a housing order because of the problem of packing and labelling eggs after the end of the 16 week derogation.
"Packers are collecting eggs from all over the UK to take to packing stations," he said, "It would cause a logistical problem for them to trace and label eggs either as free range or barn depending on the housing timetables of different UK countries or regions."
"For example, will the existing regional housing order in East Anglia run on a different 16-week clock to any other regional or national housing orders that will follow."
"Last year there was a separate housing order in Yorkshire that preceded the national housing order by one week. In that case, Defra harmonised the clocks so that the Yorkshire producers affected had an extra week's grace, and all eggs nationwide could be overstickered at the end of the 16 weeks.
"This time the gap between the East Anglian housing order and the national one will be much larger, suggesting that it will not be so easy to align the 16-week clock.
"If that is the case, packers and retailers will have to label East Anglian eggs as barn while the rest of the countries will still be free range. Yet they all might go through the same packing station."
Mr Gooch explained that this led to more fundamental problems: "These difficulties are multiplied if Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland put in place housing orders at different times to England.
"Think about it – a packer (and retailer) in central England collecting eggs from all over the country could be dealing with a spectrum of different clocks and thus changing labels/packaging depending on whether the eggs came from East Anglia, or the rest of England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland."
As of now, there have been 19 cases in England (74 in total) outside East Anglia since 1 October, only two each in Scotland and Wales, and one in Northern Ireland.
Mr Gooch said: "It is not surprising that the devolved countries do not see a case for housing yet. BFREPA and other industry representatives continue to argue for an 'all in' policy, despite the lack of cases in the devolved countries."
The ’all in, all out’ battle has seemingly been lost as Defra have now called a housing order for England only, with the devolved governments not yet ready to implement the same.
A Welsh government spokesperson said: "Having analysed the available scientific evidence, we are not introducing mandatory housing of poultry in Wales at this time.
"We will continue to monitor the situation in Wales. All keepers must keep their birds safe by rigorously applying the biosecurity measures in the Wales Avian Influenza Prevention Zone, and be vigilant for signs of the disease."
