Three people have been tested for bird flu as work begins to slaughter 10,000 chickens following an outbreak at a farm in England.

The strain of bird flu found on a duck breeding farm in the UK is the same as one recently identified in the Netherlands and Germany, the UK's Environment Department has said.

Culling of thousands of ducks at a farm operated by the UK’s largest producer of duck products is expected to begin today after a bird flu outbreak.

There has been an outbreak of bird flu on a British duck breeding farm.

The Badger Trust is back in court today with a new legal challenge over the British Government’s badger cull policy.

London Ambulance Service has seen a rise in the number of people calling 999 for help with breathing difficulties, asthma and heart problems, it said.

Record levels of air pollution will continue to plague the UK, experts have warned.

An independent study of pilot badger culls in England is said to have concluded that they were ineffective and too many animals suffered.

Britain remains at risk of more flooding as rain continues to plague the south of the country and tidal surges batter the coast.

The UK wheat harvest, historically the European Union’s third-largest, may be the smallest this year since 2001 after winter crop planting decreased, the government said.

A pilot badger cull in the UK is set to be extended by up to three weeks because fewer animals were killed than had been hoped.

The first pilot badger control operations have begun in the UK, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said today.

A High Court judge in England has made an order aimed at stopping farmers involved in badger culls being harassed and abused.

Diseased cattle, slaughtered after testing positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB), are being sold for human consumption by Defra, the UK's food and farming ministry has said.

Staff at SouthWestern’s base in Clonakilty, Co Cork, are to develop a database for sheep, goats, and deer in England as part of a €7m five-year state contract.

The Queen axeman was on hand to help out as fifty people demonstrated outside a government building.

A badger flash-mob protested today against a British Government-led cull of the animals, outside the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra).

British government ministers were warned in 2011 that horse meat was illegally entering the human food chain, it was claimed.

Mackerel is no longer a sustainable choice for a regular fish supper, British conservationists have warned in the face of overfishing of the stock.

Britain’s beleaguered towns and villages were dealt a further blow today as more rain battered the country and 200,000 householders were warned they could lose their home insurance policies.

British dairy farmers and processing firms have struck a deal “in principle” to end the bitter stalemate over milk prices.

The south east of England is now in a state of drought, Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said today.

THE Guardian newspaper in Britain recently reported on a row that has broken out over the future of a thrush-sized bird introduced from South America.

Banning landings of Icelandic mackerel at all European ports has been hailed as the right response to end a damaging stalemate over catch quotas.

FUNDING for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), which looks after agriculture in Britain, was cut 29% in the country’s recent spending review to save £66 billion.

MINISTERS should follow the lead of British Secretary of State for Agriculture Caroline Spelman and defend the interests of the people who elected them, says the IFA.

Poultry at two Bernard Matthews farms have tested positive for bird flu, the company said today.

GLOBAL concerns over a possible honey supply shortage for consumers and industry have been voiced by a leading packager and supplier.

Homes in the country cost 15% more than properties in urban areas, pricing many first-time buyers out of the market, figures showed today.

THE danger of bluetongue being brought into Ireland through imported animals was highlighted again yesterday after two new cases of the disease were confirmed in England.

No legal action can be taken against the animal health laboratories at the centre of last summer’s foot and mouth outbreak, Surrey County Council in England said today.

Beef and pig farmers in the North are cutting back production or quitting altogether because of poor farm-gate prices, it was revealed today.

A new bluetongue protection zone has been set up after a new case of the disease was discovered in London, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

A new bluetongue protection zone has been set up after a new case of the disease was discovered in Greater London, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said today.

Two dead swans have tested negative for the H5N1 strain of bird flu at a UK reserve where three birds were earlier found infected with the deadly virus.

A PASSING wild bird may have been the source of the new cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu found in three dead swans in Dorset, England.

Control zones set up to prevent the spread of bird flu from farms infected with the disease in East Anglia will begin to lift from Saturday, the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said today.

Environmental campaigners today demanded major changes to European farming to benefit wildlife and rural communities.

Poultry on four new farms in the UK are to be culled today as tests are carried out to establish if they have been infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu found in a flock of turkeys in East Anglia.

POULTRY on four new farms are to be culled amid growing concerns last night that they could have been exposed to the deadly H5N1 bird flu that infected a flock of turkeys in East Anglia.