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| Bird flu farm resumes production | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Bernard Matthews is to resume slaughtering and processing turkeys at the Suffolk farm where bird flu was found earlier this month. | Bernard Matthews is to resume slaughtering and processing turkeys at the Suffolk farm where bird flu was found earlier this month. |
| Live birds will be brought in under a special licence allowing them to cross into the exclusion zone. | |
| Bird flu was confirmed at the plant in Holton on 3 February, and 159,000 turkeys were culled. | Bird flu was confirmed at the plant in Holton on 3 February, and 159,000 turkeys were culled. |
| Environment Secretary David Miliband said he had been "guided by science" in allowing production to resume. | Environment Secretary David Miliband said he had been "guided by science" in allowing production to resume. |
| class="bodl" href="#graphic">Outbreak: Key locations | |
| Mr Miliband said: "We deliberately created an independent scientific advisory body - the Food Standards Agency. | Mr Miliband said: "We deliberately created an independent scientific advisory body - the Food Standards Agency. |
| "The question that I asked them is: Is it sensible? | "The question that I asked them is: Is it sensible? |
| TIMELINE 1 Feb: Vets called to Bernard Matthews farm in Suffolk after turkeys die3 Feb: Vets confirm H5N1 strain5 Feb: Environment minister says most likely cause is from wild bird, but other possibilities being investigated6 Feb: Cull of 159,000 turkeys completed at the farm8 Feb: Government vet suggests turkey meat from Hungary may be to blame. Bernard Matthews denies link9 Feb: FSA examines whether infected meat may have entered food chain10 Feb:Supermarkets deny there has been a slump in poultry sales12 Feb: Slaughter and processing of turkeys to be resumed at plant, it is announced | |
| "And they say yes, it is sensible because they investigated all of the aspects of this slaughterhouse and they believe them to be of an appropriate standard." | "And they say yes, it is sensible because they investigated all of the aspects of this slaughterhouse and they believe them to be of an appropriate standard." |
| The turkeys will be brought in to the factory from 0900 GMT on Tuesday, from the 50 farms Bernard Matthews operates around the UK. | |
| They will then be slaughtered, processed and sent out. | |
| Officials are still trying to work out where the H5N1 virus found in the farm came from. | |
| They have been investigating whether it could have come from a wild bird or from infected poultry from Hungary. | |
| The H5N1 strain was found on a Hungarian geese farm in January, and UK officials said later that the Suffolk strain "may well be identical". | |
| European Union officials said they were expecting results by Tuesday of tests into whether the two strains were directly linked. | |
| "However, the results cannot determine how the strain of bird flu actually arrived in the UK," an official said. | |
| The H5N1 virus, which causes bird flu, does not pose a large-scale threat to humans as it cannot pass easily from one person to another. | |
| But experts fear the virus could mutate and trigger a flu pandemic, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk. | |
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