Yeah, I think the reaction to CJD was perhaps a bit exaggerated on all sides...here in the US they won't allow you to donate blood if you have spent more than 6 months cumulatively in England! like you guys are a third world country or something!
Laura
________________________________
From: chrissiebligh <chrissie@btinternet.com>
To: CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 10:51 AM
Subject: [CHICKENS-101] Re: Feeding food scraps the reality of it all
How odd - I thought I posted on this and my post seems to have vanished!
Anyway, I phoned DEFRA yesterday and spoke to their duty vet. She went off to find out and phoned me back - the law definitely applies to private individuals, prohibiting them from feeding to their chicken any scraps from their own kitchen. It seems plum crazy to me. I can see the sense in prohibiting the feeding of meat, but crusts of bread or leftover rice? That's just ridiculous.
I suspect that very few UK back garden chicken keepers are aware of this law (all the books on keeping chickens say you can feed them scraps) and I don't think any effort is put into enforcing it. However, because of my troublesome neighbours I have decided that I will have to abide by it. If they succeed in getting the council to come and inspect my chickens for odour, I want to be squeaky clean in all ways.
BSE was devastating to UK agriculture. Fortunately so far the incidence of the human form (CJD) has not been the epidemic that was once feared. Foot-and-mouth (circa 2001?) was also devastating to British agriculture, so I can understand why DEFRA are so vigilant.
I suppose being in island means that we can take precautions that wouldn't be possible if we were in mainland Europe - for example, until recent years any animal entering the UK had to be quarantined for 6 months, to avoid rabies.
Best wishes
Chrissie
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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