Animal Health and Welfare

Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Animal Health and Welfare team offers free, reliable and impartial advice on rules, regulations and best practice of keeping farm animals.

We ensure that livestock movements are recorded, to help prevent the spread of disease among farm animals. We also ensure that animals are humanely treated during transport and sale and that their food is safe and appropriately labelled.

We also offer free publications, codes of welfare, record books, and movement documents.

Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) - How to Spot It in Birds and Report It

Housing measures to protect poultry and captive birds from avian influenza are being extended and will be in force across England from 00:01 on Monday 7 November 2022.

This means that, from this time, it will be a mandatory requirement for all bird keepers across England to keep their birds housed and to follow strict biosecurity measures, in order to limit the spread and to eradicate the disease.

More information is available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/avian-influenza-housing-order-to-be-introduced-across-england.

Definitive requirements are set out in the published declarations for each disease control zone currently in force. More information is available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/avian-influenza-bird-flu-cases-and-disease-control-zones-in-england

You can also check if specific areas are in a zone by using the following interactive map: https://defra.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=8cb1883eda5547c6b91b5d5e6aeba90d.

The Chief Veterinary Officer has declared a Prevention Zone to help protect poultry from a strain of Avian Flu in Europe