Survey Report: Understanding Backyard Poultry Keepers and their Perspectives on Bird Flu. August 2020

Executive summary

Previous research suggested that although some backyard keepers may be aware of the financial implications of Avian Influenza (AI) for the commercial poultry sector, many believe that they are disconnected and do not see themselves as a risk to commercial enterprises. In addition, few keepers seemed to be aware of the consequences to the export market of an outbreak of AI in a backyard flock. In order to investigate this further a survey was undertaken to explore Scottish keepers’ attitudes to AI and in particular their awareness of the effects of AI in backyard poultry on the commercial sector.

This study is a survey of 126 backyard poultry keepers, from 15 regions in Scotland. The study was promoted at a sale in Aberdeenshire and through social media sites from 8th April until 30th June 2020. Findings are not statistically representative but reflect the perspectives of a broad demographic of backyard poultry keepers from across Scotland.

The majority (97%) of respondents said that they were either slightly worried (43%) or not at all worried (54%) about their birds contracting AI, believing themselves to be far enough away from any outbreaks and/or in a remote location. This was interesting given that half of the respondents were aware of wildfowl regularly feeding within 2km of their flocks and nearly all said that wild birds and/or their droppings could enter their enclosures. Of the respondents to the survey, 63% had poultry during the 2016/17 UK outbreak of AI. Of these, three quarters of them stated that they housed their flock as required, following government.