The UK government is investigating what may have caused the outbreak of avian influenza at a turkey farm in Suffolk, after preliminary scientific tests showed that the H5N1 virus involved may be related to recent outbreaks in Hungary.
The Food Standards Agency, an independent watchdog on food, said: “One possible cause of the outbreak in Suffolk is poultry meat imported from Hungary. Officials from the Food Standards Agency and the Meat Hygiene Service are therefore working at the Bernard Matthews factory at Upper Holton Farm, Suffolk [the farm suffering the H5N1 outbreak], investigating meat imported there.”
They are studying documents for information about the dates and amounts of poultry imported, the route it followed, and whether it complied with European Union health and safety requirements.
Officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are also looking at the possible ways that the virus could have transferred from poultry meat imported from Hungary into live birds at the affected farm.
A spokesperson said the possibility of a link between the Hungarian outbreaks, poultry meat from Hungary, and the introduction of disease into the farm in Suffolk was only one of several possible causes being investigated.
The Food Standards Agency said that this was not a food safety issue and that there were therefore no grounds—on the evidence currently available—to justify a product recall.
However, the agency added, “If it came to light that illegal meat had entered the food chain, the Food Standards Agency would take steps to ensure its withdrawal. Although the possibility of a withdrawal for strictly animal health reasons has been discussed, Defra veterinary advice is that such action would be disproportionate and no product recall will therefore be required on those grounds.”
Judith Hilton, head of microbiological safety at the agency, said that bird flu posed no food safety risk to UK consumers. “The virus does not transmit easily to humans, as evidenced by the 270 or so confirmed infections worldwide to date, versus the millions of people exposed to poultry everyday in South East Asia. Almost all human H5N1 infections so far have been associated with close contact with dead or dying poultry.”
The World Health Organization considers that direct contact with infected poultry or with surfaces and objects contaminated by their faeces is the main route of human infection with H5N1.
Most human cases have occurred in rural or periurban areas where many households keep small poultry flocks, which often roam freely, sometimes entering homes or sharing outdoor areas where children play. Infected birds shed large quantities of virus in their faeces, so opportunities for exposure to infected droppings or to environments contaminated by the virus are frequent in these circumstances.