February 7, 2007

Bird flu bans threatens UK's US$1 billion poultry export market

Britain's poultry farmers are facing an international boycott that could wipe out exports of meat products, eggs and live birds worth more than US$1 billion a year.

Already, the country's biggest supermarket, Tesco, has reported a dip in chicken and turkey sales caused by the discovery of bird flu in Suffolk.

H5N1 bird flu broke out at the Bernard Matthews turkey farm, where the culling of 160,000 birds was completed yesterday.

Exports of all meat, eggs and birds from a 10km zone around the farm have been banned since the outbreak was confirmed at the weekend.

At least four countries have banned all poultry and egg imports from UK farms, with other nations expected to follow.