Avian influenza – housing confinement contingency plans

These plans will help you prepare and safeguard the welfare of free-range birds if they have to be kept indoors.

Your plan should include:

• Additional biosecurity measures
• Details of extra enrichment items to encourage activity and provide interest for your flock
• Litter management to prevent heavily worn or poached areas forming
• Dustbathing provisions and how these will be managed
• Actions you’ll take if birds show high levels of aggression and feather pecking. For example, you might add novel enrichment items
• Should the very worst happen, details of on-farm mass culling protocols or methods that can be used at your site.

If you’d like further advice on how to ensure the welfare of your flock during the high-risk AI season, let us know, and we’ll do our best to help.