DEFRA vets have completed the precautionary cull on four units managed by Redgrave Poultry, the same company that manages the unit at the centre of the current H5N1 avian flu outbreak near Diss.

This brings the total number of birds culled to 28,600, including those at the original farm. However, none of the birds on the four additional units have tested positive for avian flu.

Meanwhile, the outbreak has resulted in two cancelled poultry meetings - the Anglian Turkey Association’s annual show and dinner at Copdock just 32 miles away from the outbreak and the East Midlands Poultry Discussion Group’s planned meeting tomorrow (20 November).

"The show was cancelled immediately and the dinner the following morning, by which time a number of people, led by the president Derek Kelly of Kelly Turkeys, had pulled out ," said ATA secretary Len Goodman.

"Veterinary opinion was that the risk of spreading the disease was minimal as long as no one turned up with turkey droppings on their shoes, but the risk was never worth taking.

"There was also the question of ‘public image’ to consider. However things develop over the next week or two there is no way that they could be seen to be having a jolly that close to an outbreak of avian flu," he said.

"The committee is now looking into the possibility of re-staging the dinner early in January when we hope we will be celebrating a bumper Christmas and a swift containment of the Redgrave outbreak of H5N1."