Late yesterday afternoon I emailed the DEFRA policy team to reaffirm our request to race from France. I drew attention to the fact that in 2001 the French Government would not entertain us racing from France with FMD in the UK, and this a disease that racing pigeons had hardly any affect on. Here we are 5 years down the road and the French Government has agreed to let us race from the mainland along with other European countries. Clearly the French Government do not see there is a problem. Moreover, we do not race anywhere near the French restricted area of les Dombes. I commented that the last DEFRA threat assessment gave the situation as there being ‘uncertainties’ (this can be found on the DEFRA website if you wish to read it yourself) but the risk assessment for the UK is ‘low’. All these points, in addition to the low risk posed by racing pigeons of catching or passing on AI, should be considered by the Policy Group at their meeting today.

The result from that meeting this morning is that “the issue was touched on this morning but no firm conclusions were reached. We are considering the matter further and we hope to confirm our position before our meeting next week”.

In the meantime we will continue to collate race programmes and permit requests for organisations wishing to race out of France. It still remains to be seen whether we get the green light but you can be assured that the Presidents of the NEHU and the RPRA and myself will be very vocal at the forthcoming meeting next Tuesday.

Peter Bryant
General Manager