Registering your animals - Poultry / Poultry Register

Poultry identification and traceability are integral to both disease control and maintaining consumer confidence in British produce. For this reason there are required standards for registering flocks in order to prevent and trace the spread of any disease.

Poultry registration

To help national veterinary surveillance, the following species of poultry must be registered on the GB Poultry Register:

• chickens - including bantams
• turkeys
• ducks
• geese
• partridges
• quail
• pheasants
• pigeons - reared for meat
• guinea fowl
• ostriches
• emus, rheas and cassowaries (usually kept in zoos)

Who has to register?
You must register if you own - or are responsible for - a poultry premises with 50 or more birds. This applies even if your premises are only stocked for part of the year. Premises with fewer than 50 birds do not need to register, but Defra encourages keepers to do so voluntarily.

You must register if you have 50 or more birds in total. They do not have to be all of the same species.

To keep the register up to date, you must notify Animal Health of any significant changes to information you have already supplied. You should do this within one month of the changes happening. You should call the GB Poultry Register Helpline on 0800 634 1112 (lines are open 8am to 5:30pm, Monday to Friday).

What are the benefits?
If Animal Health knows how many birds you have and where you keep them, it will be easier and quicker to contact you and help manage any potential disease outbreak by targeting resources where they are needed most.

What information do you have to provide?
You will be asked for:

• your name
• your premises address
• your County Parish Holding number, if you have one - this is for administration purposes to make it easier to trace livestock owners in event of disease outbreak
• the number of poultry usually on the premises - this is the number present when the premises are stocked
• the type of poultry housing
• why you are rearing poultry

You will also be asked risk-assessment questions, eg whether the poultry have access to the open air and whether there are any bodies of water close by that may attract wild birds.

If you operate large flocks, you may separately have to apply to the Environment Agency or Scottish Environment Protection Agency for an environmental permit. For further information is available from the Businesslink website’s guide to environmental protection and pollution control.

How to register your birds on the Great Britain Poultry Register
You can register your birds on the Great Britain (GB) Poultry Register by telephone, post or online.

By telephone
You can register your birds by telephone by calling the GB Poultry Register Helpline on 0800 634 1112 (lines are open 8am to 5:30pm, Monday to Friday) and requesting a registration form - also available in Welsh.

You must then send the completed form - in the pre-paid envelope provided - to:

Poultry Register
PO Box 1109
Warrington
WA55 1EH

You can also call the Defra Helpline on Tel 08459 33 55 77, where an advisor will fill in the form for you over the phone. You will then be sent the completed form to check, with a confirmation letter.

By post
You can download a copy of the GB poultry registration form.  Completed forms should be sent to:

Poultry Register
PO Box 1109
Warrington
WA55 1EH

A copy of the completed registration form and a confirmation letter will be sent for you to check.

Guidance Notes on completing the registration form (PDF 100 KB) are available, also in Welsh (PDF140 KB).

Online
You can register on the GB Poultry Register website. You will need Windows 2000, XP and Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6 to use the online Register.

You can also find information on the GB Poultry Register online registration process on the Defra website.

Guidance Notes on completing the registration form (PDF 100 KB) are available, also in Welsh (PDF140 KB).

Poultry Health Scheme

The Poultry Health Scheme (PHS) offers a system of registration and approval enabling establishments to comply with EU legislation ensuring they are eligible to export to other EU Member States.