Keeping hens · National rules

Can you keep backyard chickens in Mauritius?

Registration: conditions apply, for the keepers covered below. Animal-disease powers from the Animal Diseases Act as updated to 30 June 2017, welfare rules from the Animal Welfare Act 2013 as passed (whether they are in operation was not established) and the national keeping rule follow.

Read from 10 official sources41 passages quotedChecked October 31, 2026

At a glance

Registering your flock

Conditions apply

National keeping rule

No rule identified

Bird-flu housing orders

Status needs rechecking

Welfare rules

Rule identified

A sourced reading of national law in Mauritius, not legal advice. Local ordinances and zoning, HOA rules, and any local rooster or coop limits aren't covered here yet: check your local code before you get hens.

Keeping your flock

These findings cover the national scope stated below. They do not determine whether chickens are allowed at a particular home. City zoning, property restrictions and other local rules are outside this research.

Registering as a poultry keeper

Conditions apply to this finding

Jurisdiction: Mauritius

Applies to: Farmers and farms under the Animal Diseases Act as amended in 2024; a farm is a compound specifically reserved for the rearing or production of animals that include poultry.

Outside this finding's scope

  • Whether a backyard coop is a compound specifically reserved for rearing poultry is not defined in the text read. The Ministry's communiqué of 18 November 2025 says poultry keepers need to register only if they have more than 25 head of commercial breeds from hatcheries; that threshold was not found in the Act text read.
  • The Animal Welfare Act 2013, as passed, provides that a person who becomes the owner of a domestic pet other than a dog must have it registered with the Mauritius Society for Animal Welfare within 30 days (s.31(2)). Whether hens count as domestic pets (the definition leaves out animals kept for commercial or recreational purposes or for a person's occupation or employment) and whether that subsection is in operation were not established; the National Assembly's list of Acts gives an in-force date only for sections 31(1) and (3) (1 October 2025).

What the checked sources say

  • Farmers and farms are to be registered with the Division of Veterinary Services under the National Livestock Identification System (Animal Diseases Act, s.15A, inserted by the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024).
  • The Ministry's communiqué of 18 November 2025, in French, lists poultry keepers with more than 25 head of commercial breeds from hatcheries among those who must register on the National Livestock Information System.

Thresholds

  • More than 25 head of commercial breeds from hatcheries (Ministry communiqué of 18 November 2025; not found in the Act text read)

Authority: Division of Veterinary Services, Ministry of Agro-Industry

Fee: Not established from the sources checked.

The official wording

Bird-flu housing orders

Current status needs rechecking

Check the agency's own page (not a status page)

Orders can change between checks. A missed check or an expired order does not establish that no order applies.

Housing-order finding as checked on 2026-10-30

The scope and conditions below are a dated record, not confirmation of today's position.

No rule identified in this research

This does not establish that no authority can order poultry to be housed or confined.

Uses housing orders in this scope: Not established from the sources checked.

Jurisdiction: Mauritius

Applies to: Animal disease control under the Animal Diseases Act (Revised Laws text updated to 30 June 2017, read with its 2024 amendments).

Outside this finding's scope

  • The Animal Diseases Act was read in the Revised Laws of Mauritius text on the Attorney General's Office site, which that office says is updated up to 30 June 2017; the LexisNexis edition of September 2016 and its supplements are the sole authoritative text. Of the amending Acts read (the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Acts 2022, 2023 and 2024 and the Economic and Financial Measures (Miscellaneous Provisions) Acts 2025 and 2026), the 2023 and 2024 Acts change section 2 and the 2024 Act adds sections 14A and 15A; none of them changes sections 13, 14 or 17. Other amendments made after June 2017 were not checked.
  • No provision in the Act read deals with housing poultry or keeping them indoors, and regulations under section 17 were not read. Whether an order under section 14, or such regulations, could require backyard poultry to be housed during a bird-flu outbreak was not established.
  • This page does not say whether any order applies now.

What the checked sources say

  • The Animal Diseases Act, as amended in 2024, refers to the Division of Veterinary Services (DVS) of the Ministry (s.2). The Ministry of Agro-Industry posts press communiqués and notices on its website.
  • Under the Act as read, a veterinary officer (the Government Veterinary Officer or a veterinary surgeon appointed by the President) who is satisfied that a disease exists on any land or place declares an infected area, and may declare a suspected area where there is reasonable suspicion that a disease may exist (s.13(1) and (2)).
  • After consulting the Chief Agricultural Officer, the veterinary officer issues, for an infected or suspected area, the orders needed to carry out the Act or its regulations (s.14).
  • The Minister may make regulations that, within an infected or suspected area, provide among other things for isolating animals and for prohibiting or regulating the movements of animals and persons (s.17(1)(b)(i) and (ii)).
  • A declaration is served on the owner or person in charge of the animals and of the place and, if the Chief Agricultural Officer so determines, is also notified in the Gazette and in 3 daily newspapers (s.13(3)).
  • Since 2024, 'disease' in the Act means any terrestrial or aquatic animal disease listed by the World Organisation for Animal Health and includes other prescribed animal diseases, and 'animal' means any terrestrial or aquatic vertebrate or invertebrate (s.2, as amended by the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024, s.4).
Checked
Recheck due

Historical evidence, as checked

These quotations record what was checked on the dates shown. They do not confirm an order's current status.

Small-flock welfare minimums

Rule identified for the scope below

Jurisdiction: Mauritius

Applies to: Any person, and owners of animals; an animal is any living vertebrate other than a human being (Animal Welfare Act 2013, s.2).

Outside this finding's scope

  • The Act was read as passed by the National Assembly in 2013. It comes into operation on dates fixed by Proclamation, and different sections may start on different dates (s.49); no Proclamation was read, so whether section 3 is in operation was not established. The National Assembly's list of Acts gives an in-force date only for sections 31(1) and (3) (1 October 2025).
  • It was amended by the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Acts 2022 and 2023 and the Economic and Financial Measures (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2025, which were read: the 2022 Act inserted a new paragraph into section 3(1) and changed its penalty, and none of them changed paragraphs (b) and (e) used here. Other amendments were not checked.

What the checked sources say

  • Under the Act as passed, an owner who fails to provide an animal with sufficient food, drink or shelter commits an offence (s.3(1)(b)); whether section 3 is in operation was not established.
  • Under the Act as passed, keeping or confining an animal in a cage or similar structure too small to give it a reasonable opportunity for natural movement is an offence (s.3(1)(e)).

The official wording

National rules on keeping poultry

No rule identified in this research

Jurisdiction: Mauritius

Applies to: Animals and birds kept on any premises, under the nuisance provisions of the Public Health Act.

Outside this finding's scope

  • The Public Health Act was read in a Revised Laws text published by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, with amendments noted up to 2006. The Economic and Financial Measures (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026 amends other parts of the Act (including section 32A); later changes to sections 18 and 29 were not otherwise checked.
  • No national limit on how many chickens may be kept, or where, was found in the texts read, and council planning rules were not researched. The national texts' silence is not permission to keep chickens.

What the checked sources say

  • Any animals kept so as to be injurious to health, and an animal or bird kept so as to be dangerous to public health, are nuisances under the Public Health Act (s.18(f) and (z)).
  • Where the Sanitary Authority is satisfied that a nuisance exists, it serves a notice in the form set out in the Act's Second Schedule (s.29(1)).

The official wording

This does not establish that keeping is unrestricted or that all rules are local.

Selling eggs in Mauritius? →Licence, small-flock line, markets and cartons, on their own page.Selling: Registration

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Common questions

Do I have to register backyard chickens in Mauritius?
Registration: conditions apply. The finding covers: Farmers and farms under the Animal Diseases Act as amended in 2024; a farm is a compound specifically reserved for the rearing or production of animals that include poultry. More than 25 head of commercial breeds from hatcheries (Ministry communiqué of 18 November 2025; not found in the Act text read). Outside this finding's scope: Whether a backyard coop is a compound specifically reserved for rearing poultry is not defined in the text read. The Ministry's communiqué of 18 November 2025 says poultry keepers need to register only if they have more than 25 head of commercial breeds from hatcheries; that threshold was not found in the Act text read. The Animal Welfare Act 2013, as passed, provides that a person who becomes the owner of a domestic pet other than a dog must have it registered with the Mauritius Society for Animal Welfare within 30 days (s.31(2)). Whether hens count as domestic pets (the definition leaves out animals kept for commercial or recreational purposes or for a person's occupation or employment) and whether that subsection is in operation were not established; the National Assembly's list of Acts gives an in-force date only for sections 31(1) and (3) (1 October 2025). Authority: Division of Veterinary Services, Ministry of Agro-Industry.
Can I keep chickens in my backyard in Mauritius?
The national sources we read don't settle it, and we haven't identified who decides. Check your local rules before you get hens.
Do I have to keep my hens indoors for bird flu in Mauritius?
Housing orders come and go, so we never show one as current. This page links the agency's own page to check; it is not a status page.

Allowed where you live? Then keep the records.

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