AI UPDATE

Well, at long last we have received the formal response to the legal letter sent to the Secretary of State, Hilary Benn.  The first thing I noticed was that this time the letter had not been signed off by Mr Benn but a ‘programme manager’, whatever/whoever that may be.

In essence the response is rather how I anticipated it.  Our letter of 1 February to DEFRA really pulled apart their arguments of their first letter.  This letter just seems to have confirmed all those same points again.  The have defended their decision to ban continental racing last July on the basis that they needed to see if there was a spread of AI through France and the fact that France then permitted international racing where they didn’t ‘was immaterial’. 

On the susceptibility of pigeons to AI and in particular whether pigeons can shed the AI virus the DEFRA jury is still out.  They accept that the risk from pigeons is low but as they have said repeatedly ‘low risk does not mean no risk’.

The letter then tells us that DEFRA takes a risk-based approach to its decision to licence pigeon racing.  This is done via a veterinary risk assessment (VRA) that reviews scientific evidence and they then base their decisions on that VRA and they have to ‘consider the risk that something may happen’.

Although DEFRA concedes that there is no documented case available where pigeons have introduced AI to poultry (I had asked them for evidence that there was) they state that there is still no definite proof of exactly where the source and route that AI has come from in recent AI cases.  Again, they state that pigeons MAY be a possible source of infection. 

Next, the issue of the 7 day isolation period.  DEFRA restates the accepted protocol for the World Organisation for Animal Health which states that the maximum incubation period for AI is 21 days.  The average incubation period is however 3 to 5 days and therefore DEFRA considers that 7 days is a safe margin when birds should be isolated from other birds and regularly inspected for signs of disease.  As you know from the last View form the Reddings this was one of the major points we took up with Hilary Benn at the recent meeting and he has, at the very least, agreed to review this timescale to see if any allowances can be made.

Regarding the Channel Islands DEFRA continues to state that from a disease control point of view the Channel Islands are still considered to be part of continental Europe and therefore the 28 days isolation period stays.  Again, this was a major point that Mr Benn was appraised of and he agreed to revisit this.  As I write this review is being undertaken by DEFRA policy officers.  Our argument of course was that Dover was nearer to France than Guernsey.  Hopefully someone may have done their maths by now.

I had also queried that fact that shooting was allowed in the Suffolk control areas where the last commercial AI outbreak was found and this didn’t make sense given that man has been proven to spread the disease mechanically many times.  Again their argument was that appropriate risk assessments had been made and proportionate measures were taken.

DEFRA concludes the letter by stating that the nature of the risk they are managing and European law requirements mean that they cannot (will not) take pigeon racing and showing out of the AI legislation.  They will however, continue to consult with us during the VRA and policy review process.

So what are we to make of this?  Well, firstly I can honestly say that I was not surprised by the content of this response.  Certainly the reply mirrors the stance that was taken at the recent meeting with the Secretary of State.  It is interesting that they back their refusal to budge by stating that the measure they impose are European law requirements and of course this is very true so perhaps a judicial review within the UK only may be  waste of time and money if they can prove (and I think they can easily) that they are following EU legislation.  So perhaps it is the EU itself we should be tackling.  The difficulty we have is that under this EU law each member state can make their own derogations (their own rules within the overall rules).

Copies of the DEFRA response has been sent out to members of Council for them to decide the way ahead and I am busy collating their responses to see how we should proceed.  I will of course keep you appraised of where we are going with this plus any AI update as part of the DEFRA policy review with regards to the 7 day isolation and the Channel Islands.

I have put the DEFRA letter on the RPRA website under AI news, along with our last letter to Mr Benn, for you to see the full content.  Observations, as always, are welcome.

AI OUTBREAK IN DORSET.  THURSDAY 10TH JANUARY 1530 HRS

AN H5N1 AVIAN INFLUENZA OUTBREAK HAS BEEN REPORTED IN DORSET.  DEFRA HAS NOT YET REPORTED WHETHER THERE WILL BE ANY RESTRICTIONS ETC IMPOSED.  THEREFORE WE DO NOT AS YET KNOW THE STATUS OF RACING PIGEONS AT BLACKPOOL.  FROM PREVIOUS OUTBREAKS GATHERINGS ARE NOT PERMITTED WHICH MAY MEAN THE SHOW PIGEONS CANNOT ATTEND BUT SALES FROM SINGLES SOURCES AT AUCTIONS SUCH AS CLEARANCE SALES FROM ONE LOFT HAVE IN THE PAST BEEN ACCEPTABLE.

WE WILL CLARIFY THE SITUATION WITH DEFRA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BUT THE BLACKPOOL WINTER GARDENS SHOW WILL GO ON WITH OR WITHOUT PIGEONS

PETER BRYANT

 VIEW FROM THE REDDINGS

A response from DEFRA at last!

That’s the good news anyway.  The bad news and as anticipated is that DEFRA has not changed their stance on the status of racing pigeons and the likely restrictions that we will have to continue to undertake with regards to gatherings and racing.  Copies of the letter have been sent to all Council members and they will discuss this at a forthcoming meeting before Christmas on what action to take.  The gist of the DEFRA response is that they say that they have acted in a proportionate and appropriate manner and that their ‘risk based approach’ will continue in the future.  I sincerely believe that some of these issues can be actively challenged.  They acknowledge the scientific evidence we have produced but counter this by stating that more recent research suggests the contrary.  I hasten to add that this new research has never been addressed to us so I will be scrutinising this to see what counter arguments can be made. 

Business Rates on Pigeon Clubs

Last week was one of the busiest I have encountered at the RPRA with media enquiries.  We were still receiving enquiries from national and regional media on Friday so to say that news is short lived proves that this is not always the case.  Congratulations to everyone that did their bit and I know that we had to call on fanciers far and wide to talk to the media.  One thing that came out of my interview with our local paper was that the principal criteria against which the Sports Councils assess activities is whether or not the activity meets the definition of sport contained in the Council of Europe’s European Sports Charter 1993. This defines sport as: “Sport means all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels”.   This clearly requires a bit more research and I have passed the information onto Gerry Francis as he is willing to take this up with the CCPR when he next meets with them.  One issue that needs clarifying that has been mis-reported is that pigeon racing has not been classed as a sport, neither is greyhound racing. 

BHW Show of the Year

Plans are progressing for the 2008 Show of the Year and if you require tickets then these can now only be obtained from the Reddings.  The Wintergardens will only sell them to personal visitors now, not by post or telephone.  I am aware that with several pigeon shows cancelled during the gatherings ban the Supreme Champion class may well be affected with its entries.  If you are re-scheduling a show that had been cancelled then do please contact Racing Support for an entry form for the Supreme Champion class.   Please be aware that the show must be for 500 racing pigeons or show racers shown on the day not including fancy breeds.  There is just a chance that the Supreme Champion class may be held over until 2009 if we do not get enough entries.  Clearly to only have 3 or 4 entries does not hold the class with the status it should.  (I am reminded of the women who was the only entry in the Victoria Sandwich cake competition but still came third!).   We had to hold over this class in 2006 so we will see how many entries we get in after Christmas before a decision is taken.

Reddings House – Christmas Closing and Last Orders

The Reddings will close for business on Friday 21^st December and not reopen again until Wednesday 2^nd January 2008.  Therefore if you require rings guaranteed for posting out on the 2^nd January, we must have your order, with current membership card, by 14th December so we can process the order in time.   Similarly if you would like polo shirts, ties or baseball caps for presents we will need your orders in by post or by telephone if you want to pay by credit card, by 14^th December if we are able to get the post back to you. 

 Peter Bryant

VIEW FROM THE REDDINGS

AI UPDATE

Well it has been a roller coaster couple of weeks with DEFRA and at last the ban on gatherings has been relaxed and shows and sales can take place , with the exception if you live in the restricted area in Norfolk and Suffolk where there are still strict movement controls.  The relaxing of the ban did not save the NEHU show in total although they were able to contact most of the people who had offered pigeons for the charity sale.  A concerted effort was made lobbying DEFRA over the last 2 weeks to try to overturn the ban on shows and gatherings some 200 miles from the infected area.  Neither could I see the sense in DEFRA allowing shooting to continue in the surveillance zone where the gunmen could potentially spread any disease mechanically by picking up AI infected droppings on their footwear.  Isn’t that why DEFRA only let us race from 400 miles in 2006  so what was the difference?  Anyway, last Friday beckoned and the ban has now been lifted.  Needless to say bio security measures still need to be taken at shows and sales.  One good thing that came out of the stakeholder meetings was that I was able to ask the chief vet chairing the stakeholder meetings why we hadn’t had a response from the Secretary of State to our legal letter. “Was it because he held the pigeon fraternity in contempt or was someone at DEFRA just incompetent?”  The response was received by return and I am assured that a letter is on the SofS ‘s desk for signature. 

HELP  - I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE

Did you have a show or a sale cancelled because of the recent ban on gatherings?  If so please write to me or e mail and tell me how much money you have lost, perhaps from hotel or venue bookings, loss of sales in comparison to the same period last year etc, etc.  This information is vitally important to state our case against DEFRA for the over reaction to the recent situation.  I hope to meet with DEFRA in early December so please put pen to paper urgently so that we can collate all the statistics.

 DEFRA Press Release

For your information the full DEFRA press release is as follows

Avian influenza update: bird gatherings permitted outside restricted zone

Defra today announced that it is lifting the ban on bird gatherings, shows and pigeon racing which has been in place since confirmation of avian influenza on 12 November. This decision is based on expert consideration of surveillance and tracing results. As a precautionary measure, the ban will remain in place within the Restricted, Surveillance and Protection Zones in Suffolk and Norfolk. Birds from those zones will not be able to be taken to gatherings in the rest of the  country. Bird gatherings must take place under the normal biosecurity, notification and record-keeping requirements of a general licence, which can be found on the Defra website at www.defra.gov.uk

Further information on avian influenza can be found on the Defra website at: www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/disease/ai/index.htm

The general licence for bird gatherings has now been re-issued and is available on the Defra website. This covers falconry displays, fairs, markets, shows, exhibitions and pigeon races. ‘Gathering’ for the purposes of this licence means the arrangement by a person of the collecting together of poultry or other captive birds from different epidemiological groups at one location.

 RUMOURS, RUMOURS

It seemed incredible to me that I took a call from a  fancier last week to ask me to confirm that racing had been banned for the 2008 season.  This is absolute rubbish and people spreading these rumours ought to be shot!  My personal opinion is that the licence conditions will be no worse than they have been for the 2007 season.  But you also have my assurance that we will endeavour to improve on the 7 day ruling of isolation following a continental race and improve the lot of the Channel Islanders.  I have already spoken with Glynn Picton of the WHPU and Tom Dawson of the NEHU and we are of like mind to do our best for the fancy nationally.

BHW SHOW OF THE YEAR

The Show Committee met recently and before the gatherings ban was lifted and announced that, with or without pigeons for sale or showing, the Show will go on.  This is a very big year for the Show as the total of donations made since the Show’s inception in 1973 will break the £2 million barrier.  We are pleased that another £25,000 will go to the Pigeon Fanciers Lung Research Team which benefits fanciers throughout Britain.  It will mean that the team can continue to research this dreadful disease by sponsoring a PhD student for the next 2 years. 

 A MANIC MONDAY

 The office was thrown into confusion on Monday this week with the news that a pigeon club in Northumberland had been told to pay   business rates on its basket store.  Lots of news stories suddenlty appeared out of TV and radio and we received literally dozens of calls from national and regional media wanting a local spin on things.  Was it a problem?  Why aren’t you a spotrt anymore? (as was incorrectly reported).  The truth of the matter is that pigeon racing is not classed as a sport.  Many representations  to various bodies have been made over the years, the most recent only a few months ago by none other than Gerry Francis who went to see Sport UK to try to get us recognised as a sport.  Gerry tells me that he wasn’t in their offices for more than 10 minutes and he basically wasted his time, they weren’t interested.  He has however managed to get us recognised with the CCPR, the next best thing, and this organisation may be able to assist us in our goal for sport recognition.  The reason we are told we are not a sport is because it is the pigeon that does the racing and exertion, not the fancier.

 PIGEONS OUTSIDE AI LEGISLATION ?

Over the last week and several times at the NEHU show people asked me about DEFRA regulations and the fact that pigeons had been taken out of the AI legislation recently.  This is not strictly true.  The EC regulation is COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 318/2007
of 23 March 2007 which lays down animal health conditions for imports of certain birds into the Community and the quarantine conditions thereof.  The particular paragraph that people are singling out is:
(12) The animal health risk posed by racing pigeons that are brought into the Community to be released again so that
they may fly back to their origin is such that they should be excluded form the scope of this Regulation.

You have to read this in context with the rest of the document and not just this paragraph.  What this does mean is that a non EU country (say Croatia – oops bad example!) can travel to say Italy to release its pigeons if it is intended that the pigeons fly back to Croatia immediately, without the pigeons having to undergo any quarantine.  We have already addressed this anomaly with DEFRA as it seems that ‘Johnny Foreigner’ can enter an EU country to release pigeons without restriction yet if we wish to go to France to release we have all sorts of restrictions imposed on us.   

Peter Bryant

General Manager