Veterinary surveillance: Great Britain Poultry Register

Defra, the Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government, backed by the poultry industry, has established the Great Britain Poultry Register to gather essential information about certain species of birds held on premises in Great Britain. This information will help reduce the impact of an outbreak of avian influenza.

As of 10th July 2006 the GB Poultry Register holds details of 23,822 premises. A total of 271,240,800 birds have been registered. Information regarding the Density of Poultry and Premises Registered in GB Poultry Register (377 KB) is available.

We continue to encourage keepers to register. The register opened on 9th December 2005 and has remained open beyond the statutory end date of 28th February 2006 to allow for the continued voluntary registration of premises with less than 50 birds. Better late than never The call centre will also take new and late mandatory registrations (of premises with 50 or more birds) for those who haven’t had the need or an opportunity to register to date. Who has to register? What do we mean by “poultry”? What are the benefits? What information will I have to provide? More information

Who has to register?

By law* you must register if you own or are responsible for a commercial poultry premises with 50 or more birds. This requirement also applies even if the premises is only stocked with 50 or more birds for part of the year. At present, premises with fewer than 50 birds are not required to register.

This does not necessarily mean 50 of one species (although this may be the case) but 50 overall, for example if you have 30 chickens, 15 geese, 4 ducks and 1 rhea you need to register.

The decision to restrict the requirement to register, to commercial flocks of 50 or more birds, was based on advice from experts who consider that smaller flocks are less likely to play a significant role in the spread of avian influenza. It is a priority to focus on gathering information from these larger flocks. However, it is possible for owners of smaller flocks to register on a voluntary basis now should they so wish and we would encourage them to do so.

A "commercial premises" means premises where poultry are kept for commercial purposes. This requirement does not apply to premises where all poultry (and their eggs) are kept by their owners for their own consumption or as pets.

* Avian Influenza (Preventive Measures) (No2) Regulations 2005 ; Avian Influenza (Preventive Measures) (Scotland) Regulations 2005; Avian Influenza (Preventive Measures) (Wales) (No. 2) Regulations 2005 (last two links go to the OPSI website).

Guidance Notes (149 KB) are available, also in Welsh (170 KB).

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What do we mean by “poultry”?

For the purpose of the Great Britain Poultry Register, "poultry " means birds (as listed below) which are reared, given, sold, or kept in captivity for commercial purposes including:

• showing
• breeding
• the production of meat or eggs for consumption
• the production of other commercial products; and
• restocking supplies of game

You must register the following bird species:

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What are the benefits?

If we know where your birds are kept and how many you have, we will be able to communicate with you quickly and help manage any potential disease outbreak by targeting resources where they are needed most.

The sooner we know where your birds are, the better prepared we will be to prevent and control an avian influenza outbreak.

Previously, Government and various individual poultry organisations held information separately but no central register existed. Combining information such as the size and location of poultry premises onto one database will both help effective communication with poultry keepers and help manage any potential outbreak.

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What information will I have to provide?

You will be asked for:

• your name
• your premises address
• your County Parish Holding (CPH) number (if you have one)
• the number of poultry that are usually on the premises
• their type of housing; and
• the purposes for which they are reared

The number of poultry that are usually on the premises, is the number of poultry present when the premises is stocked.

You will also be asked some essential information that can assist risk assessment, for example, whether the poultry have access to the open air or whether there are bodies of water close by that attract wild birds.

Your personal information will be protected in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. The data protection statement at the end of the registration form explains what we will do with your personal information.

Quality checks are continually undertaken on the information provided to the register. On occasions we may need to contact you directly to confirm any proposed amendments.

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More information

See our page of questions and answers. If you have further questions or would like help to fill in the Great Britain Poultry Register form, please contact the Poultry Register Helpline on 0800 634 1112.

Guidance notes (149 KB) for the completion of the form are available, also in Welsh (170 KB).

The current promotional material is available:

• 'Count your chickens' registration leaflet (109 KB)
• 'Count your chickens' registration leaflet (Welsh version) (180 KB)
• 'Don't throw caution to the wind' registration poster (193 KB)
• 'Don't throw caution to the wind' registration poster (Welsh version) (203 KB)
  

For more information on how to make sure that good hygiene practices are in place, to help you prevent the spread of animal disease, please see our biosecurity pages.

• Avian influenza homepage - Latest information regarding avian influenza
• World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
• 6 January 2006 - News release: Time running out to register poultry.
• News release: Poultry keepers urged to plan ahead
• News release: Poultry keepers urged to register flocks