Dear Ms Lyon,
Back yard hens and feed
Thank you for your email about feeding poultry food scraps.
The feeding to farmed animals (including backyard chickens) of catering waste, kitchen scraps, raw, partially cooked and cooked meat products is prohibited under EU animal by-products legislation, in order to control the potential introduction and spread of major exotic notifiable diseases. In the case of poultry, this includes Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).
Kitchen scraps are every item of food that come from the kitchens of dwelling houses. This includes food originating from the kitchens of vegetarian homes which may still be of animal origin and could spread exotic diseases.
However, vegetable material originating outside the kitchen, which has not entered the kitchen, and which has not come into contact with material of animal origin in a dwelling house e,g vegetables grown in domestic gardens may be fed.
The reason for this strict approach is that vegetable material can easily get cross contaminated with material of animal origin in a kitchen environment and which can in turn present a disease risk if fed.
Full guidance is available from the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) website at:
HYPERLINK:
http://animalhealth.defra.gov.uk/managing-disease/animalbyproducts/collection-feeding-abp/Ban-on-feeding-of-kitchen-scraps-to-pet-poultry-and-other-pet-farmed-animals.aspYours sincerely,
Tiyi Morris
Defra - Customer Contact Unit
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
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