New: MAY TABLE PLAN
BIOSECURITY
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.
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Therefore the following birds are still NOT permitted at the 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) is once again starting to spread around the UK and as usual there seems to be 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.
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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.
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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’.
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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.
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THANK YOU FOR READING. WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL ON SUNDAY!