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From The Sunday Times
February 4, 2007

Britain hit by killer bird flu

The most virulent strain of killer avian flu was last night confirmed to have struck one of Britain’s biggest poultry producers

Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Steven Swinford

THE most virulent strain of killer avian flu was last night confirmed to have struck one of Britain’s biggest poultry producers.

Government officials disclosed that the infection, which killed 2,600 birds on a Bernard Matthews plant in Suffolk, was the “highly pathogenic” Asian strain of bird flu.

It is one of the biggest outbreaks of H5N1 in Europe and is the first case of the virus in farmed poultry in this country.

The virus, known as H5N1, has killed more than 160 people since 2003, mainly in Asia. But health officials emphasised that there was “negligible” risk to the public.

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They have set up a six-mile protection zone around the infected farm and processing factory. All 159,000 turkeys are to be slaughtered using argon gas.

Up to 60 workers at the farm who came into contact with the poultry are being offered antiviral drugs. Employees were yesterday being treated at an emergency clinic in Halesworth, about one mile from the farm.

Birds started dying on the site on Tuesday. The death toll continued to climb on Wednesday and by Thursday evening, the company had alerted the state veterinary service.

The plant employs 1,400 people and includes a slaughter house, a processing factory and turkey-rearing sheds. It produces branded Bernard Matthews turkeys for supermarkets and a wide range of turkey products.

Fred Landeg, the government’s deputy chief veterinary officer, said the most likely source of the outbreak was wild birds. Vaccinations for poultry were not being considered, he said.

There is no evidence infected birds have entered the food chain and consumers were assured that “poultry is safe.”

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Strange that it should have struck one of the most secure farm sites in Britain, and not one of the hobby farmers/free range bird sites!!! I await with interest the explanation!!

M.Stringfellow, Dorset.,

If there's mystery about how the turkeys became infected, if wild birds are ruled out, perhaps they should be checking the local feral cat population. I read about cats carrying bird flu on this site : www.birdflublogspot.com perhaps infection by cats is a likely way for those turkeys to have been infected with H5N1?

Monty, Sydney, Australia

Yeah, don't worry as long as it doesn't kill you or your "mates". ...Have you ever asked yourselves how it happened we now have AIDS (mostly in Africa), H5N1 (in Asia), and other "mutants"... Did you ever wonder how comes Magic Jonson is well and alive, but tens of millios of people are dead in Africa because of AIDS? H5N1? Don't worry, you still have enough time to live and to see other people die. Sad, but true. And, please, remember we are destroying Earth... Remperature, CO2, the temperature is rising, sea level too, cancer, deseases... Compare the world when you were a kid, and that same world 50 years later.

Mike Comike, Belgrade, Serbia

Does anybody else think its suspicious that this outbreak was found after Christmas - not before? Imagine what this would have done to BM sales if it had struck 45 days earlier ! Now that it's Feb, sales are down and the marketing department is looking around for ways to get turkey back in the spotlight. Don't be surprised if all this blows over in time for Easter.

J Skelly, London,

I am better off with Chicken than turkey ..

Nishant Varshney, New Delhi, India

And I was really looking forward to some TurkeyHam too!!

Gareth Webber, Swanley, Kent

Only 2 days of deaths before the vets come in?

Dave, London, UK

Horrible its finally struck. The worry is these were farmed turkeys indoors. The fall back plan is to take poultry indoors. Is that right?

Rosamond, Guildford, Surrey

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