The message to poultry keepers and consumers alike is definitely don't panic' though watching the television it seems that there are plenty of people who would like to hype this situation into a new dimension, writes Liz Wright, editor of Smallholder.

I was at the National Poultry Show of Great Britain at the RASE, Stoneleigh, Coventry, at the weekend. It opened on February 3 with around 3,000 exhibits, many of whom arrived on the Friday night.

One of the first visitors were representatives from Defra who were very pleased with the bio-security that they saw and took the view that as everyone was there, it was in order for the show to carry on to its finish time of Sunday afternoon. The mood on Saturday was sombre but determined, but on Sunday the exhibitors and breeders of pure breed poultry had rallied and were talking about carrying on their hobby' even if shows were banned by breeding stock, meetings and of course by phone and email.

advertisementBack home, the full horror of the continuing news coverage kicked in and the depressing pictures of turkeys on a factory farm being tipped like vegetables into the lorry, upset many small poultry keepers. But Defra seem quietly optimistic that the outbreak has been contained and are working realistically in a world where avian flu is a global problem. Instead of the mass cull that might have been expected we have protection and surveillance zones with the poultry being brought inside. Many super smallholders have been shown on the news coping with this and telling the world how important it is to them that the poultry can range free as soon as possible - a very big contrast from the last outbreak where certain members of commercial farming interests talked about all poultry needing to be confined always!

My advice is don't panic' and if you have a small number of poultry make sure that if you have to, you can house them, that is that they have sufficient space. It's not enough just to shut them into small night time' houses. If this is all you have then you will have to net and cover a reasonable sized run. This is particularly true for waterfowl who don't do very well housed and confined. Keep checking out the Defra site (www.defra.gov.uk) or phone their helpline 08459 33 55 77 between 8.30am and 8.00pm and choose the avian influenza option.

All bird gatherings have now been cancelled - and this includes shows, markets, fairs and pigeon racing until further notice. The Protection Zone extends around three kilometres radius of the outbreak and a Surveillance Zone extends to ten miles. A wider Restricted Zone has also been imposed, covering east Suffolk and South East Norfolk, bounded to the west and the north by the A140 and A47 respectively, an area of approximately 2,090 square metres. It requires the isolation of poultry from wild birds and requires movements to be licensed. You can view the map on the Defra site and if you type in your post code you can see if you are within any of the areas.

Those who carry out wild bird surveillance have not noticed any indication of avian flu within the wild bird population but, of course, if you find dead wild gulls, waders, ducks, geese or swans, then you should phone the help line number above.

At Smallholder we are very pleased to hear by email or post your views or experiences of the current avian flu crisis.

If you want to know more about the issues raised above then contact Defra; if you want to know more about poultry welfare or issues concerning shutting in poultry or separation from wild birds, then do email or write to us.