A bird flu prevention zone has been declared across Suffolk, Norfolk and parts of Essex as the region is racked by a series of outbreaks.
Environment secretary Ranil Jayawardena decided to take the step to reduce the risk of transmission of avian influenza to poultry and other captive birds from wild birds "or any other source", said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Government vets are racing to bring the disease under control following outbreaks across the region and beyond.
But a Suffolk poultry farmer claimed DEFRA wasn't going far enough - and called for birds to be locked up inside while the outbreak is brought under control.
The measures were put in place from noon on Tuesday (September 27) and remain in place until further notice.
Under the order, poultry and bird keepers must comply with a range of heightened measures, including strict biosecurity and documentation, keeping movements to a minimum and keeping birds fenced in or housed.
Before the order, there were already 10 disease control zones in force across the three counties after a series of outbreaks in backyard and commercial flocks. One of the latest was on September 24 where government vets ordered that a commercial poultry flock near Hadleigh should be humanely culled and a 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone put in place.
The commercial poultry industry is already reeling after a terrible winter for bird flu cases - with Suffolk particularly hard-hit.
The spring/summer brought some relief as restrictions were lifted - but poultry farmers have been on high alert as outbreaks in wild and kept birds continue.
Free range egg producer Alaistaire Brice, of Havensfield Happy Hens, at Hoxne, near Eye, called for a housing order to be put in place to protect commercial flocks. Commercial poultry operations were already operating under strict biosecurity even without the latest order, he said, but many backyard bird keepers weren't.
"We need a housing order immediately," he said. "It's just escalated from the start of September."
With the additional costs poultry producers now face, the risk of disease and the lack of movement on prices on supermarket shelves, businesses were becoming less and less financially viable, he said, and flocks were being drastically cut.
"The rules and regulations I have to abide by are totally different to someone who does it as a hobby," he added.
DEFRA needed to come up with a "much better solution" for safeguarding the poultry industry, he said. "I have never been more concerned in my life about the situation. Never before have we had an outbreak every month of the year."
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