newcastle disease and paramyxo

FroM: nehu
To: ; brian ford ; 'Alan Brown' ;
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2018 12:16 PM
Subject: FW: Newcastle Disease and Paramyxo

From: Ian Evans
Sent: 20 July 2018 11:20
To: 'nehu'

Subject: Newcastle Disease and Paramyxo

Good Afternoon, There has been numerous outbreaks of Newcastle Disease in Belgium among commercial and back yard stock that has resulted in DEFRA increasing the risk of an outbreak in the UK from small to medium.

Following a request earlier this week to discuss the possible implication to pigeons and pigeon racing I have just finished a conference call with various members of DEFRA and APHA.

The good news is that they have no intention of preventing continental racing at this point in time. However, they do have concerns over the spread of the disease to the UK and how the racing and purchasing of pigeons from the continent can increase this risk.

Something to consider is that although the birds had been vaccinated against Newcastle Disease the outbreak has continued to spread.

With this in mind we have been requested to communicate advice and guidance to make members aware of the increased risk to not only the UK farming industry but also to pigeons.

Over the next week I will work with DEFRA to finalise a suitable statement and guidance sheet for publication which I will share with you. It is important that we do all we can to get this message out as our ability to communicate issues and guidance impacts positively on the risk based assessment DEFRA take when considering the impact of racing pigeons in the spread of disease.

Kind Regards

Ian

Ian Evans

CEO

The Royal Pigeon Racing Association

Reddings House, The Reddings, Nr Cheltenham,Glos. GL51 6RN.