December 20, 2007

Bird flu hikes British turkey prices

Consumers of turkey in the United Kingdom have to dig deep into their pockets for as prices are already up by 38 percent.

A total of 200,000 birds were slaughtered after outbreaks of the dreaded disease, causing feed prices to surge on higher wheat costs. As a result, holiday bird prices already increased GBP100 (US$205) for a turkey.

The British Retail Consortium predicts that sales of organic turkeys will jump 46 percent compared to the 7 percent increase the industry group earlier projects for total turkey sales.

England had its first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu last February at a turkey farm operated by Bernard Matthews Holdings Ltd., Europe's largest factory poultry producer.