Consumers 'sensible' about bird-flu risk

The British government moved to shore up consumer confidence today as the UK's poultry industry faced the prospect of multimillion-pound losses following an outbreak of the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Minister for the environment Ben Bradshaw defended the way in which the emergence of the virus at the Bernard Matthews farm in Holton, Suffolk, was handled and insisted there was “absolutely” no risk from eating poultry products.

“When we had the scare last year in Cellardyke in Scotland, there was a very small dip in poultry consumption in this country but then it came back up,” he told GMTV.

“The British consumers have proved themselves to be much more sensible and less hysterical than some in other countries because they know that there is absolutely no risk from eating poultry products.”

Mr Bradshaw said the claim that there was a delay in acting following the outbreak at the Suffolk farm was “simply wrong”.

He said: “There were a small number of birds that died on Tuesday and on Wednesday but nothing unusual in a flock of this size. You do get birds dying in those sorts of numbers.

“It wasn’t until Thursday, when more than 800 birds died, that the Bernard Matthews vet quite rightly informed the local State Veterinary Service and we immediately put restrictions on that farm. So this idea that there was some delay is simply wrong.”

Mr Bradshaw’s remarks come after it was announced that the Japanese agriculture ministry has temporarily suspended all imports of British poultry following confirmation of the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Chicken and turkey farmers and processors are also bracing themselves for a backlash against poultry meat in Britain.

The slaughter of 159,000 turkeys on the Holton farm is under way.

Although 164 people have died from H5N1 since January 2003, mostly in Asia and the Middle East, the Health Protection Agency has reassured the public the virus is not transmitted through food.

Industry figures have urged consumers to heed advice from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) which said no infected birds have entered the food chain.