VETS were today awaiting the results of tests on meat transported from the UK to Hungary after the British bird flu outbreak.
The outcome of tests into whether the lethal strain of H5N1 bird flu found in Britain this month was directly linked to a similar case in Hungary will be known by Tuesday, an EU official said.
Hungarian officials were reportedly carrying out tests on the processed meat, said to have been taken from the Suffolk farm at the centre of the outbreak to Hungary in the past few days.
The case was confirmed in Suffolk, England in early February, following an outbreak of the H5N1 strain in southeast Hungary.
It was claimed yesterday that lorryloads of turkey meat had been taken from the Bernard Matthews’ farm in Suffolk to Hungary, as late as three days after bird flu was confirmed at the farm on February 1.
It followed the Government’s announcement on Thursday that scientists would be examining a food processing plant on the Suffolk farm - and that the virus had spread to three more of the farm’s 21 sheds. An exclusion zone has been in place around the farm since the H5N1 strain took hold.
However, the results cannot determine how the strain of bird flu actually arrived in the UK, the official added.
Source: Reuters
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