Norfolk MP George Freeman has written to the new Defra secretary of state Therese Coffey asking for an urgent response to the avian influenza outbreak ripping through the British poultry industry.
Freeman, Conservative MP for mid-Norfolk, wrote in his letter of “very urgent and serious concerns” about the spread of AI throughout mid-Norfolk in the country.
He listed examples given to him by his poultry farming constituents about the problems the outbreak has caused them. These included the following comments:
“Within our business we now have four confirmed cases, with more suspects awaiting testing. So far, we have lost over 100,000 birds and I fear that this could get worse. Other poultry businesses in the area have lost hundreds of thousands. By the end of this it will without doubt be in the millions.”
“The situation is completely out of control and is getting worse by the day. We have lost count of the number of farms in our area that have been infected and it is impossible to decipher the APHA interactive map listing all the sites – there are so many. Farmers are losing their livelihoods and businesses and employers are in jeopardy.”
“This is a major incident and needs to be treated as such with some sort of co-ordinated action or crisis management.”
“We need to change the way farmers are compensated for their losses and to put this in line with compensation for notifiable diseases in other species where farmers get paid the full value of all stock on their farms, rather than simply for animals culled, as is the case in poultry.”
“The answer to stop this disease is simple: we have to vaccinate. It is my understanding there are vaccines available that could be used, but it is legislation that is holding things up. We need government help to make this happen.”
Freeman went on to describe the situation as an “urgent crisis” and warned that a number of local poultry businesses had told him they risked going out of business. He said he would welcome an urgent meeting with Coffey to discuss what more Defra could do to help.