Redgrave Poultry, the company at the centre of the recent H5N1 avian flu outbreak, has responded to DEFRA's first report into the outbreak by admitting to biosecurity weaknesses.

Published on Friday (30 November), the first epidemiological report failed to identify the source of the outbreak, but it did cite "poor biosecurity" and the location of the Redgrave Park Farm - just metres from an ornamental pond inhabited by wild birds - as significant findings.

Therefore the report did not rule out wild birds as the source of infection.

Responding, Redgrave Poultry operations manager Geoffrey Buchanan stressed that turkeys, geese and ducks were kept in separate paddocks. "And birds did not have any access to the lake on the property, as we used electrified and permanent fencing, empty ground and a road to segregate our poultry from the lake.

However he added that, after reading the report, he agreed with many of the conclusions. Redgrave purchased the affected farms at the beginning of this year and had already identified a number of these as issues that need addressing. But due to the lack of organic land, planned changes were impractical for this season

The company is now implementing new measures, in consultation with DEFRA, the first being to avoid farms close to areas commonly used by migratory birds. "We had already identified this as a potential issue with Redgrave Park farm and plan to find alternative farm for next season."

Looking at staff, Redgrave said that the nature of organic and free range farms in the UK meant that many of them were not large enough to justify dedicated staff. "But from now on, we will provide specific clothing for each farm for every worker and implement more rigorous practices and protocols.

"We will also improve our processes to minimise movements between farms and wherever possible operate farms large enough to justify a dedicated staff.

"Finally, our workers will not live on our farms from now on, other than when it is for operational reasons and then they will live and work on the same farm to minimise movements between farms," he said.

• Protection Zones could be lifted as early as 8 December and the Survelliance Zone on 19 December providing there are no further cases.