The measures are 'essential to protecting flocks' the government has said

On Friday, the government announced an avian influenza prevention zone (AIPZ) had been extended across the entire nation due to the "increased number of cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry in new areas of the country."

The new measures came into effect from noon today (January 25).

Keepers in East Riding of Yorkshire, City of Kingston Upon Hull, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, have been given an additional directive to galvanise their housing measures.

This applies to both commercial keepers and people who keep a "few birds in a backyard flock". The measures are "essential to protecting flocks from avian influenza", the government said.

From Monday (January 27), these measures will apply to Shropshire, York and North Yorkshire as well.

Bird keepers can check this map to find out what measures apply to them, and you can check the latest bird flu situation on the government website here.

Bird flu is a disease caused by a virus that infects birds and sometimes other animals, such as foxes, seals and otters. In very rare cases, it can also infect humans via transmission from birds.

Earlier this month, the US reported its first bird flu-related death after a patient over the age of 65 died in Louisiana.

Louisiana health department said the person had other underlying health conditions and there was no evidence of person-to-person transmission.

The main global strain of bird flu is the H5N1 virus, which emerged in China in the late 1990s. It is spread among domestic and wild birds, but in very rare cases can be spread to humans.

Since 2003, the World Health Organisation has counted 954 cases of humans with bird flu, of which about half have died.

Almost every one of these infections has been associated with close contact to infected dead or live birds, or contaminated environments.

There has never been any sustained human-to-human transmission of bird flu.