Turkey products 'to be recalled' from UK supermarkets » Central Government » 24dash.com

Supermarkets were tonight facing a possible nationwide recall of processed turkey products in an attempt to halt the spread of bird flu.

The Government's chief scientist Professor Sir David King warned the H5N1 virus could be picked up by other birds or animals if they came into contact with meat from infected poultry.

While there was no risk to human health, as long as the meat was properly cooked, Sir David said that turkey products may now have to be withdrawn from the shops to stop the disease spreading to other animals.

"I think that is exactly what the Food Standards Agency will be looking at now," he told Channel 4 News.

He warned that the disease could spread very quickly if the wild bird population became infected, although no cases had been found so far.

"That sort of direct transfer is my biggest worry at the moment because the transfer could occur through, for example, wild animals and wild birds so the real concern now is whether or not the virus is isolated to the birds that have been culled or whether it has moved beyond that," he said.

"My bigger worry is that it might have got into the wild bird population. We need to keep a very close eye on that."

A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) confirmed that if the virus was discovered in meat products they would take "appropriate action", although he stressed that at the moment it was a "hypothetical" possibility.

"This is part of the investigation. The investigation has just begun. If we find infected meat at the end of the food chain we will take appropriate action because it would be illegal," he said.

Sir David said it was "quite feasible" the disease had been spread from hut to hut at the Bernard Matthews turkey plant in Holton, Suffolk, where the outbreak occurred, by vermin or wild birds which had come into contacted with infected carcasses.

Following a meeting the Government's Cobra emergency planning committee, Animal Welfare minister Ben Bradshaw confirmed that officials were looking at a possible breaches of "bio-security" at the plant.

"We can't go into the details of those today because it's possible that legal action could follow," he said.

"But certainly the bio-security at the plant is something that the Food Standards Agency, the Meat Hygiene Service and we are investigating very closely."

Sir David said that officials had now confirmed that the virus at Holton was "identical" to the strain involved in a bird flu outbreak at a Hungarian food processing plant last month.

He said the "most likely scenario" was that the virus was brought into the UK by poultry meat from Hungary.

It was reported last night that a consignment of dead turkeys from a Bernard Matthews-owned plant in Hungary could be the source of the outbreak.

According to The Observer, the consignment of meat, which had been partly processed, was brought by lorry to the UK, arriving a few days before January 27, when the first signs of illness were spotted in turkey chicks at the farm.

The Government has known about the contaminated meat since Monday but did not tell the public, the paper claimed.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) insisted there had been "no delay" in informing the public of the possible link between the UK and Hungary outbreaks.

A spokeswoman said the department had been aware of the regular consignments from Hungary but thought the birds were coming from an uninfected part of the country.

Bernard Matthews said in a statement that it had suspended all movements between the UK and Hungary.

"Bernard Matthews continues to work closely with Defra to assist with its ongoing investigation," a company spokesman said.

"We are co-operating fully and as a precautionary measure we have volunteered to cease any movements to and from Hungary."

Conservative spokesman Peter Ainsworth today wrote to Mr Miliband demanding a public statement to clarify why the Environment Secretary and Environment Minister Lord Rooker did not mention the Hungarian link when they briefed Parliament on the outbreak earlier this week.

Mr Ainsworth also asked for details of the exact timing and extent of poultry movements between Bernard Matthews plants in Hungary and the UK and how soon the authorities were informed of them.

And he demanded to know whether Bernard Matthews would be held liable for any damage to the poultry industry if the outbreak turns out to have been caused by "lax bio-security" in the company's plants - or whether taxpayers may find themselves having to compensate the company.

In his letter, the shadow environment secretary said: "I hope you will also agree that the present climate of speculation and rumour is deeply unhelpful to the UK poultry industry and to public confidence in poultry products.

"I am therefore writing to request that you make a public statement at the earliest possible opportunity in order to provide the fullest possible account of what has occurred and of the potential risks to the industry and the public. This is particularly important as we have not heard directly from you since your statement on Monday."

Copyright Press Association 2007.