The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been identified as being responsible for the death of thousands of turkeys on an English farm.
The H5N1 strain can pass to humans and has killed 164 people worldwide since 2003. The outbreak of bird flu on the farm run by Europe's biggest turkey manufacturer, Bernard Matthews, has killed 2,500 birds, British government officials said today.
Police seal off the area around a Bernard Matthews turkey farm in Suffolk
British government veterinary experts were called to the farm near Lowestoft late on Thursday by the farm's management.
Samples were taken from some of the dead birds to the Community Reference Laboratory in Weybridge.
This morning the European Commission said the laboratory "swiftly confirmed the disease to be the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.
"Further tests to characterise the virus are under way, in order to ascertain whether or not it is the Asian strain", the EC said in a statement.
Britain's Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer Fred Landeg said all 159,000 turkeys on the affected poultry farm would be slaughtered as a precaution and that he was hopeful the outbreak would be contained.
He said the countryside was still open, and urged poultry farmers to step up their bio security procedures. Maria Zambon of the Health Protection Agency said: "Bird flu doesn't transmit easily to humans and human disease occurs as a result of direct contact with poultry. There is no confirmed information worldwide about transmission of bird flu through food."
She said workers at the farm had been offered prophylaxis such as Tamiflu, and those culling the birds were also being offered the drugs and wearing protective clothing.
A statement from Britain's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said a protection zone of three kilometres and a surveillance zone of 10 kilometres around the premises in Suffolk, eastern England, was being enforced.
Movement restrictions are being imposed and poultry must be isolated from wild birds. The farm itself has been under restrictions since Thursday evening.
Defra also announced bird shows and pigeon racing would no longer be permitted, as the national general licence on bird gatherings had been revoked. Wider restrictions may be imposed in the area, depending on the risks posed to poultry by this outbreak, the department warned.
Neil Parish, chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, said there was no need to panic. Mr Parish, who is the Parliament's leading member on bird flu preparations, was responsible for the contingency plans being enacted by Defra at the site.
He said: "This outbreak has been detected early and action taken swiftly to contain it.
"The EU and Defra have put in place some very stringent procedures to prevent an outbreak from spreading.
"Of course we must all be vigilant, but there is absolutely no need for panic or hysteria.
"If you can stamp it out quickly it will be OK. Nothing must be allowed to spread and we must be absolutely ruthless.
"It will drive the poultry farmers mad in the area for the short term, but it has to be done in this way."
The Suffolk farm has 160,000 turkeys, but only one of the 22 sheds that house the birds has so far been affected by the outbreak. In May, 50,000 chickens at three farms in Norfolk, also in eastern England - home to some of Europe's biggest poultry farms - were culled and disposed of after the H7N3 strain of bird flu was detected.
A wild swan found dead in Scotland in March 2006 had the highly pathogenic H5N1 version of the bird flu virus which can kill humans.
It was thought to have caught the disease elsewhere, died at sea and been washed ashore in Scotland. Mr Bourns said those two scares cost the British poultry industry £58 million in 2006.
The H5N1 virus is known to have infected 270 people and killed at least 164 worldwide since 2003, most of them in Asia, and over 200 million birds have died from it or have been killed to prevent its spread.
An outbreak of H7N3 in the Netherlands in 2003 led to the culling of a third of the poultry flock. It also infected around 90 people, including a veterinarian who died.