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Bird flu compensation for Bernard Matthews

Turkey producer Bernard Matthews will receive nearly 600,000 pounds (Dh4.4 million) in compensation after a bird flu outbreak forced it to slaughter thousands of turkeys, the government said yesterday.

  • Reuters
  • Published: 23:38 May 3, 2009
  • Gulf News

London: Turkey producer Bernard Matthews will receive nearly £600,000 (Dh4.4 million) in compensation after a bird flu outbreak forced it to slaughter thousands of turkeys, the government said yesterday.

Europe's largest turkey producer culled 160,000 turkeys to help prevent the spread of the H5N1 strain of bird flu that was found on one of its farms in Suffolk, eastern England.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the compensation system was designed to encourage farmers to report potentially deadly outbreaks.

Cost

"Early reporting is essential to preventing disease spread, which would result in a far higher cost to the taxpayer," it said in a statement.

In a final report into the outbreak, the ministry confirmed the source has not been proven, although the "most plausible" cause was infected meat from Hungary.

"Infection was most likely introduced to Great Britain via the importation of turkey meat from a sub-clinically infected turkey flock in Hungary," the report said.

Denied

Hungary has repeatedly denied suggestions it was the source of the virus. The country's Agriculture Minister Jozsef Graf said in February he considered the case closed.

"We cannot imagine [the virus] getting there from Hungary, the technology is so closed and controlled," he said.

Bernard Matthews said it had tightened its biosecurity since the outbreak.

"While the cause of the outbreak remains unclear, Bernard Matthews believes there should be more extensive testing of wild birds in the UK," the company said in a statement.

"Bernard Matthews wishes to reiterate at this point that it has always maintained biosecurity standards that meet and in some cases exceed those recommended by Defra and other authorities."

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