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

To ask His Majesty's Government which notifiable diseases have been confirmed in (1) pheasants, and (2) red-legged partridges, in the last five years; and whether there is evidence of transmission to wild birds for any of these diseases.

In the last five years there have confirmed cases of both low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) on premises containing pheasants. Some premises confirmed with HPAI and LPAI have also had red-legged partridges. There have also been findings in both species in found dead wild birds tested as part of wild bird surveillance.

Epidemiological investigations at infected premises did not find any evidence to support likely transmission from farmed gamebirds to wild birds on these premises.