BIOSECURITY
MANDATORY BIRD REGISTRATION
LICENSING RULES FOR BIRD GATHERINGS CHANGED AGAIN ON 1st FEBRUARY 2025.
As most of you will know it became mandatory for ALL bird keepers to register the premises where their birds are kept with DEFRA/APHA back in October last year.
On February 1st the licence for all bird gatherings was updated to encompass the above legislation. Therefore all sales, auctions and shows where birds are gathered together from multiple locations are now required to record the County Parish Holding (CPH) registration number of everyone bringing birds to a gathering.
THEREFORE FOR ALL FUTURE SALES YOU WILL NEED TO BE REGISTERED AND PROVIDE US WITH YOUR CPH NUMBER BEFORE YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TO BRING BIRDS TO SELL.
The new wording of our licence is as follows:
'...𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺.’
REGISTRATION IS FREE, QUICK AND VERY EASY TO DO.
If you have not yet done it you will need to register ASAP to allow you to take your birds to any bird sale or show.
The fastest and best way to register is to phone APHA on 03000 200 301. This way it only takes a few minutes and you should have your CPH number very quickly.
If you're not in a hurry or just wish to know what questions you'll be asked when you do phone them click HERE for the details.
When registering it is worth stating that you need the number urgently as APHA have been so inundated with registrations they have a backlog.
YOU WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO BRING BIRDS TO ANY FUTURE CAMBRIDGE BIRD SALE IF YOU HAVE NOT PROVIDED US WITH YOUR CPH REGISTRATION NUMBER!
Please remember that we cannot be responsible for or be influenced by how other sale/show/auction organisers deal with this new law.
POULTRY AND OTHER GROUND DWELLING SPECIES
(Including Quail)
LICENSING RULES FOR BIRD GATHERINGS CHANGED ON 23rd AUGUST 2023.
Poultry and other predominantly ground dwelling species have been removed from our General Licence and now have their own separate licence. This means that to have these birds at our sales we would require both licenses. The conditions of this new poultry licence are considerably more stringent than our existing one and would involve us having a vet on site to inspect all birds, plus you as vendors would have to be registered with APHA to be able to bring in any poultry. For these reasons we have decided NOT to apply for it at this stage.
Therefore the following birds are still NOT permitted at Cambridge Bird Sales:
-
GALLIFORME birds: i.e. pheasants, partridge, QUAIL, chickens, turkey and guinea fowl.
-
ANSERIFORME birds: i.e. ducks, geese and swans.
-
POULTRY: i.e. 'all birds that are reared or kept in captivity for the production of meat or eggs for consumption, the production of other commercial products, for restocking supplies of game or for the purposes of any breeding programme for the production of these categories of birds'.
Please note that for the purposes of these rules the definition of ‘poultry’ can include pigeons and other birds not traditionally known as poultry if they or their eggs are intended for human consumption.
THE LATEST BIRD-FLU AND BIOSECURITY GUIDANCE
Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) seems to be a way of life now in the UK and there is always a lot of confusion and misinformation doing the rounds. Most of this seems to originate from people confusing the various different zones which are put in place by APHA.
The things which stop bird sales going ahead are called ‘Control Zones’ and these are the 3km or 10km circular zones which are put around all confirmed captive bird flu outbreaks. As the name suggests, there are controls in place regarding the movement of birds to or from infected areas: therefore no bird sales can take place within one of these Control Zones.
Additionally, if your birds are housed within one of these Control Zones you cannot legally move your birds between their home and any ‘bird gathering’. This applies in both directions: i.e. you cannot bring any of your birds to sell, or buy birds and take them back home with you. It doesn't actually prevent you from attending yourself to look around or get supplies, but you cannot bring or buy birds.
Please check whether you live in one of these Control Zones by entering your postcode in to the bird-flu map HERE. This map is updated regularly so please check it again before setting off on Sunday morning.
All sellers will be required to sign a declaration on arrival stating that their birds ‘do not originate from a premises within a Protection, Surveillance or other notifiable avian disease Control Zone’.
Fortunately at the moment we don't have any of these Control Zones in the east of England so we can go ahead with the sales as planned. This could change at any time however, and if one was to be put in place within 10km of our venue we would have to cancel. If this happens all bookings will automatically transfer over to the next sale, or if requested we would issue you with a refund.
The only other circumstance where we would have to cancel the sale is if the General Licence for bird gatherings is withdrawn completely by APHA for the whole of the country.
BIOSECURITY
Please observe the following guidelines:
-
Please make sure all cages are clean and show no signs of previous habitation. To quote the licence, cages must not be ‘visibly contaminated with bird droppings or other material of bird origin, other than faeces produced during the transportation of the birds to the gathering’. In other words, cages must be cleaned out before putting your birds in them and your birds must not live in these cages for longer than it takes to cage them up and get them to the sale.
-
These guidelines also apply to buyers; do not buy a bird from a clean cage and put it in to a dirty one.
-
If you are bringing birds to sell, please check their health before bringing them to the sale.
-
Whether buying or selling please quarantine all birds you take home and keep them away from your other birds for at least one week.
-
PLEASE fill out the traceability forms on the tables when buying or selling birds; you only need your membership number to do so. Not doing this could help spread bird flu and jeopardise the future of all bird sales. These records are stored and then destroyed 3 months after the sale. We are not permitted by law to show them to anyone other than an APHA inspector in the case of a disease outbreak.
-
Do not exchange birds outside of the venue. Bring them inside the venue, fill out the traceability forms, put them in the buyer's cage and then they can take them outside.
