| Author: Peter Bryant | Title: View from the Reddings - AI Update |
| Date: 2006-02-13 18:26:40 | Uploaded by: webmaster |
|
AI UPDATE
Here is the latest state of play with regard to racing in 2006 as at 13 February 2006.
UK – DEFRA has approved racing in the UK subject to licence conditions being met.
Guernsey – whilst awaiting formal approval the authorities have agreed in principle to racing from Guernsey which would be subject to the same licence conditions as DEFRA impose.
Ireland - They will not be operating a General Licence procedure, as is the case in the UK. Instead, individual pigeon races will be licensed. The host club will be the licence applicant and application is made to the Department of agriculture and Food’s local office in the county in which the birds are gathered to race.
Further information on the licensing regime etc is available from the Department's Avian Influenza Helpline at + 353 1 607 2512.
Belgium – has agreed in principle to releases for UK fanciers HOWEVER:
DEFRA has only licenced racing within the UK at present. I have written formally to DEFRA to seek a relaxation of this condition and this request is under review.
France – Not looking good. The French Government has restricted bird movement and will not as yet even allow French fanciers to exercise their birds let alone race. They will be reviewing the situation on 31 May, as are all other EU countries, so whether they will change their mind before then remains to be seen.
Current Avian Influenza Threat
As you may have seen the media, AI has now encroached into Italy, Greece and Nigeria. The Sunday papers quoted DEFRA as saying that the Italian outbreak did not threaten the UK as the swans were not UK migratory birds. Perhaps the Nigerian outbreak is more of a threat as we do receive summer migratory birds from Africa but it is waterfowl of course that is the real threat.
IMPORTS OF RACING PIGEONS FROM EU COUNTRIES – A CORRECTION
Last week I published a notice to say that anyone importing pigeons from places such as Lier market would need to register with their DEFRA Area Health Office. I am now told that this is not correct and so am sorry if this inconvenienced anyone. Dare I say it but this information came from a DEFRA Area Health Office who assured me this was new policy but they have since retracted the statement. It doesn’t give you much confidence when the supposedly ‘experts’ don’t know what the rules are!
MARIE CURIE DAFFODIL APPEAL
I am very grateful to the following for assisting Mare Curie Cancer Care with liberations at these localities. The releases are to take place on Monday 27th February and as you will see we appear to have even got the Royal Lofts involved which I am sure will do the image of pigeon racing a world of good for this very worthwhile cause in what is lilely to be a high profile publicity campaign.
Vauxhall - Ted Hendrie, London - Robbie Byford, Caterham - Doug Catland,
Cardiff - Jim Hooper, Northampton - Russell Bradford, Margate - Nita Donaldson,
Walsall - Denis Sanders, Devon - Frank Mercer, Edinburgh - Archie Herd, Belfast - Mrs Hazel Phillips, West Sussex - Stuart Earl, Peterborough - Roger Howland, Gloucester - Alan Ward, Norfolk -Carlo Napolitano.
Thanks everyone for your great support.
RPRA ONE LOFT RACE
Response for the RPRA One Loft Race has been fantastic and the places have filled up really quickly. We now have filled the quota of places and have a reserve list so please do not send any more entries. The website will be updated just as soon as the ‘webmaster’ is able to clear last year’s entries and I am pleased to say that we have had a brilliant response form Regions entering young fanciers and schools.
Peter Bryant
General Manager
|
| Coo time for a brew!...Where next? |
| Lets hear what you've got to say on this issue.... or any other infact! Post your comments in the Message Forum. |
| You've seen the light... bang a new idea!!... Tell the world, Write an article for Pigeonbasics.com, email into the webmaster at webmaster@pigeonbasics.com. |
|
|
