Save our Christmas
Farmers warn of turkey shortages and jobs disaster unless SNP changes bird flu policy and lock flocks indoors
LOCKING turkey flocks indoors to protect them against bird flu is the only way to save Christmas dinner, farmers have warned.
Laws for Covid-style lockdowns on all poultry farms in England have already been announced as the UK experiences its worst avian influenza outbreak.
But the Scottish Government is refusing to impose a ‘national housing order’, despite a series of cases north of the Border.
Robert Thompson, chairman of the poultry committee at the National Farmers Union Scotland, yesterday urged a change of heart over fears that flocks could be decimated before Christmas.
Mr Thompson said: ‘We do not agree with the stance the Scottish Government is taking on this. We completely object to it, totally, and will be pushing very hard to be on an equal footing with our colleagues in England.
‘The disease won’t stop at Carlisle, there’s no set of traffic lights saying don’t go beyond this point.
‘We as an industry should be standing as one and we should not be divided.’
Mr Thompson told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme: ‘It’s now becoming a welfare and a wellbeing issue to our members. There’s a lot of very, very concerned poultry farmers out there in Scotland and it’s just not acceptable that we have not got this universal cover.’
He added: ‘To protect the commercial flocks from the wild bird population it is essential that those birds are housed.
‘England adopted this already and we should have a universal policy on this throughout the UK.
‘The Scottish Government’s view is that this problem can be controlled simply by biosecurity – we do not agree with this at all. I can see there being an impact on the Christmas supply.’
Scottish Tory David Duguid yesterday wrote to Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon urging her to impose the same housing order as England.
The Banff and Buchan MP reacted after being notified of an outbreak of bird flu in his constituency, at Logie Farm in Newton, Aberdeenshire.
He said: ‘The consequences of avian flu spreading could be catastrophic to poultry businesses in Banff and Buchan, as well as our butchers and farm shops across the North-East.
‘Many of these businesses are depending on the Christmas market but they face the prospect of losing everything if an outbreak of avian flu occurs. It’s vital everything is done to limit the spread.’
Mr Duguid added: ‘We know this can escalate rapidly, which is why I have asked the Scottish Government what immediate measures it is taking, if not following the measures being imposed in England.’
Farmed birds are most likely to catch avian flu through contact with wild birds, which is the reason for the order in England to keep poultry indoors. A total of 486 wild birds in Scotland have tested positive for the disease and cases of bird flu have been detected in 26 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities.
Mr Thompson said that to comply with the law, farmers of free-range poultry must allow their birds to roam outside. He said this was why it is so crucial for farmers to get a government-issued housing order to temporarily override this.
Reacting to the Mail’s front page yesterday, he confirmed turkeys are ‘very susceptible’ to bird flu.
More than 5.5million of the UK’s farmed turkeys, geese and ducks have died or been culled over the past year, with 2.3million lost in the past month alone.
Sheila Voas, Scotland’s chief veterinary officer, said biosecurity measures such as visitor controls and disinfection provide greater protection to farms than housing orders.
She said: ‘We have to act on the science and the available evidence and in Scotland we don’t have that as yet.
‘Housing of birds that are normally kept in a free-range way does have consequences for the welfare of the birds and it’s not a panacea against bird flu.
‘More than half the cases in England have been in flocks already housed, so there are plenty of other things that would give a greater protection than simply housing.’
In October there were at least 80 cases of avian flu on English farms and four on farms in Scotland.
The Scottish Government said: ‘We are keeping the situation under constant review, however, the current evidence does not yet justify imposing a housing order in Scotland.’
Scottish Conservative spokesman for rural affairs Rachael Hamilton said: ‘Bird flu pays no attention to borders and it makes no sense for Scotland to fall out of step with the rest of the UK.’