The Animal Health Inspector for Bedford Borough Council has advised that the UK Chief Veterinary Officer has ordered a mandatory housing order to cover the whole of England from 0001 on Thursday 6 November 2025, following the escalating number of confirmations of avian influenza in kept and wild birds.
Commonly known as bird flu, avian influenza is a disease of birds which presents a very low risk to human health but a significant threat to the United Kingdom’s poultry industry and kept bird populations, in addition to posing a threat to natural biodiversity through its impacts on wild birds.
The risk of bird flu outbreaks occurring in the United Kingdom typically increases on a seasonal basis, with the arrival of migratory wild birds in the autumn and winter months. The first cases are usually expected in late autumn with the peak risk occurring between December and February.
It’s vital that people who keep birds to continue to practice good biosecurity to prevent further outbreaks and their birds from becoming infected with this disease.
Whether you own a few pet chickens or ducks, 1000s of poultry on a commercial premises, or farm gamebirds, you all need to implement high standards of biosecurity. This is the key to preventing the spread of this disease. Although wild birds have introduced the disease, it is often humans that cause the spread to their birds.