Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to follow the recommendation in the report by the Animal Welfare Committee, Advice on emergency culling for the depopulation of poultry affected by high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) – consideration of ventilation shutdown (VSD), published in June 2023, that research should be undertaken to identify products that could be used as an in-feed or in-water sedative/anaesthetic/culling method as an alternative to ventilation shutdown as a culling method for poultry.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) leads government action on animal disease control in Great Britain. APHA and its contractors utilise a range of culling methods to humanely remove birds on infected premises where highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) or other notifiable disease has been confirmed.

One of the Animal Welfare Committee’s key recommendations was that ventilation shutdown should not be used for the culling of any poultry in disease control procedures due to the unacceptable impact on bird welfare.

Whole house gassing represents a better option, and this approach is deployed as a priority. Operational plans for the deployment of whole house gassing and other approved culling methods take account of the epidemiological risk for each case.

We are continuing to consider whether there are additional humane culling methods, such as high expansion nitrogen foam for poultry, that could be utilised but there are currently no plans for research into in-feed or in-water medications.