Families could be going without turkey this Christmas if the worst avian flu in British history continues to spread, a farmers union has warned.
Avian influenza H5N1 has been confirmed in captive birds, poultry and wild birds across England, Wales and Scotland, National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has said.
This has resulted in three million birds being culled with bird flu detected at 155 sites across the UK.
In its latest update on Saturday, NFU said four new avian flu outbreaks had been confirmed in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Poultry farmers are worried about their livestock and whether Christmas turkey supplies will be impacted, Sky News reports.
Chairman of the NFU Poultry Board, James Mottershead, told the broadcaster it is a risk.
“If bird flu, for example, gets into turkeys that could cause holy carnage; that could cause real supply chain issues in the run-up to Christmas time. The realities of it are quite severe.
“I do know of some instances where seasonal turkey producers have been affected by this, so far, this year. If you have an outbreak on your farm and your farm is classed as an infected premises, it is serious - you could be out of production up for up to 12 months.”
Meanwhile farmers are calling for a review on how DEFRA deals with the outbreak and further financial aid.
Currently farmers receive compensation only for healthy birds that are culled, but not those that die of the disease, or consequential losses.
DEFRA told Sky News that the UK is experiencing its largest ever outbreak of avian flu.
“To date, 3.1 million birds have unfortunately been culled. This represents a small proportion of overall poultry production, around one billion birds a year.
“DEFRA’s objective in tackling any outbreak of avian influenza is to eradicate the disease as quickly as possible from the UK poultry and captive-bird population and regain UK World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) disease-free status.”
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is calling for the government “to develop a response plan urgently” to reduce the impact on the nation’s bird populations.
The charity said in an earlier statement: “We want to see coordinated surveillance and testing of wild and domestic birds, carcasses to be safely disposed of and vulnerable bird populations protected. We also want measures put in place to stop the unnecessary disturbance of wild birds affected by the virus.
“In the longer term, we want much higher importance being given to prioritising and funding seabird conservation. This would help make our seabird populations more resilient to these diseases and the other challenges they face.”
