France, DEFRA and all that!
It is mixed news from the continent with regard to racing. Certainly the story from Belgium and Holland is that they cannot as yet race from France. However, there may be of light at the end of the tunnel. Firstly I understand from a very good source that AFSSA (the technical agency in charge of food and animal health to the Ministry of Agriculture) will review the AI situation with regards to racing in France very soon and this should enable the Ministry to lift the ban on gatherings of racing pigeons, thus authorizing races to start. This may occur before the end of May. You will recall however, that French fanciers are only authorized to train individually up to 250 Km and definitely no gatherings or training with another loft.

Now, this may open the door, and just ajar for the moment, for the French government to authorize racing from France for other Euro nations but this will obviously be dependent on any other outbreaks AND DEFRA giving approval for us to race from outside Great Britain. I have asked DEFRA to call a meeting with the UK pigeon Unions and this will occur on 23rd May when we will be able to put our case. Firstly I hope that the French Government will have made their decision by then and it is positive. Secondly, and again dependent on no further outbreaks, we will have a stronger case to ask for the GB-only race restriction to be lifted. I think we have a good case for this. At a recent Standing Conference on Countryside Sports meeting which I attended with Pat Mitchell, we heard an AI update from a vet with the Game Conservancy Council. They are very concerned because if AI got into the game bird population then they would have a major disaster. However, something we gleaned from that meeting was that as the weather warms up then the threat from AI diminishes. Like a lot of viruses AI thrives in cold weather so a warm summer can only be good for us in lots of ways.

I also want to try another tactic with DEFRA if I can. You may recall before Christmas when we were negotiating the licence conditions I presented DEFRA with a file with the details of traders who were being financially affected buy the AI ban. Well I would now like to hear from any organisation or individual that is affected by the restriction of not racing from the continent. It may be that we can use this as another lever if there is a case so please send me any details or information if you are duly affected.

In the meantime we have asked the FCF if we can forward them a list of permit requirements. We await an answer from them but if they are willing at least to have the list of permits required then that may save some time if and when we are granted permission. We have also kept in contact with the ferry company so that we do not ‘lose’ any potential bookings.

Disinfecting of Vehicles
It is clear from the many phone calls I have received that there is still some’ confusion’ over when and where organisations should be disinfecting their transporters and crates. The DEFRA licence conditions do make mention of when this should be done but there is legislation already in being stating that all crates and transporters are to be cleansed and disinfected within 48 hours of use. This is the Transport of Animals (Cleansing and Disinfection (England)) Order 2003. You may recall that there had been much debate from some quarters over whether baskets were being phased out. DEFRA had said that they could not see how, in their opinion, a wicker basket could be disinfected satisfactorily and that wooden crates would need to be varnished in order to sustain the regular soaking.

The whole issue regarding disinfecting has now moved up a gear with news from the AHO in the East Riding of Yorkshire. They are concerned about non-compliance of the regulations and have a duty to enforce the legislation where appropriate. I think that this is a shot across the bows and a warning for organisations to get their acts together. It would appear that there are some organisations that are not following the Disinfecting of Vehicles Order which makes me wonder what they have been doing in previous seasons since 2003!

Number of Pigeons Liberated
If you are a race organiser please do not forget to advise the AHO covering the liberation site of the number of pigeons marked. This should be done within 48 hours of the marking.

Change of Liberation Site
If an organisation goes to a different liberation site from the one booked with the RPRA then it is imperative that the race organiser advises the Racing Support team here at the Reddings. If you move from a site on a Saturday for any reason then the race organiser must advise the AHO also in the region of the new lib site.

Transfers
We have about a 10 day backlog on transfers due in the main to a huge surge in transfers arriving all at once and a delay in processing the club ring lists. Please bear with us.

Peter Bryant
General Manager