Game: Birds

(asked on 21st September 2022) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason the 2010 Study to determine whether cage-based breeding can meet the needs of game birds, and if not, to identify best practice - AW1303 did not include an objective of assessing whether cage-based breeding could meet the welfare needs of game birds; and if he will make such an assessment.


Answered by
Scott Mann Portrait
Scott Mann
Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This question was answered on 29th September 2022

Timing of the call for evidence is still to be determined and needs to be considered in light of the challenges the gamebird sector is currently facing, not least the ongoing Avian Influenza outbreak.

Responses to a public call for evidence would help to inform a review on gamebird welfare by the expert Animal Welfare Committee, whose recommendations may then form the basis of a public consultation on any proposed reforms. The timeframe of these stages could only be considered once the outcome of the call for evidence was known.

The Defra study AW1303 was commissioned under a previous administration in 2010. Details of the study, including its objectives, are available at: Defra Science AW1303 game birds

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