Poultry culled amid bird flu fears

The birds are being slaughtered as a precautionary measure on four sites that are operated by the same company as the free-range rearing unit in Redgrave, Suffolk, at the centre of the outbreak.

The farms were assessed by Defra as having "dangerous contact" with the initial outbreak because staff on the farm at Redgrave Park also work at the other premises.

Defra said the poultry had been assessed as being at risk of exposure to the highly-pathogenic virus, but no disease had been detected at the new sites.

One of the four premises on which the culls are taking place is inside the 3km (two-mile) protection zone set up around the Redgrave rearing unit.

The other three are outside the 10km (six-mile) surveillance zone but are within the restricted zone which covers Suffolk and most of Norfolk, Defra said.

They are Stone House Farm in West Harling, Norfolk; Bridge Farm in Pulham, Norfolk; Grove Farm in Botesdale, Suffolk; and Hill Meadow in Knetishall, Suffolk.

In all 22,000 free-range turkeys will be killed, in addition to the 6,500 turkeys, ducks and geese culled at Redgrave Park farm.

Answering speculation that the virus may have spread from wild birds on a nearby lake, Geoffrey Buchanan, operations director of Gressingham Foods subsidiary Redgrave Poultry, said the poultry on Redgrave Park farm were kept in paddocks during the day with housing available at night.

He said all of their feed and water was provided indoors to discourage wild birds using it and that the turkeys were prevented from getting to the lake on the property by electric fencing, empty ground and a farm road.