As long as other birds can't get into the pen, it should be ok. In other words, you'd have to have quite small mesh size, or cover the pen with bird netting, the kind used for fruit trees... And outside feeding is already banned in several countries, as that attracts wild birds.
I must say, I can see the reasoning behind it all. Better safe than sorry. The Netherlands had that bird flu outbreak not so long ago and lost, what, 100s of thousands, or how many chickens? And if the strain that's going round now and making it's way towards Europe is the one that attacks humans, too - no matter how good the medical system is in our countries, I'd rather not catch it!!!
Foot and mouth was bad enough. I knew people who lost all their livestock back then. I was in quarantine myself for a week. But of course, if it's wild birds, how are the chances that the infection could pass to a human through normal contact, i.e. being sh** upon, or just touching places where birds had roosted before...
The mind boggles! Maybe we'd all better do something to strengthen our natural resilience to infections. Pass the echinacea...
Ina
! However, I really don't want to buy them and then have to keep them indoors (or under bird-proof netting, as in the Netherlands). It's bad enough for us self-sufficientishs; I really feel for those small producers of freerange eggs and poultry that are trying to live on the sales.
but they won't be free range but in a large pen so maybe it'll be ok