Farmed birds in England have been let outside after being cooped up for six months in a bird flu lockdown, it has been announced. The mandatory housing order, introduced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in late October, required all poultry birds in England and Wales to be kept indoors in barns and coops around the clock . The housing order, which was finally lifted on April 9, meant that even birds sold as ‘free-range’ were prevented from going outdoors at any time to minimise their contact with wild birds which carry and spread avian flu. The regulations applied to flocks of 50 or more birds and to any sellers of poultry products like meat and eggs. The scale of H5N1 bird flu outbreaks on poultry farms in the UK, Europe, and the US since 2020 has been described as unprecedented, with more than five million birds culled in Britain alone over the last four years.…