Port leads battle against bird flu

Simon Rowell says container-loads of chicken are being checked

The port of Felixstowe is in the front line of the fight to stop bird flu arriving in Britain from Thailand.

A third of all the chicken imported into the European Union from Thailand comes in through the Suffolk port.

It leaves port staff in the vanguard to stop the bird flu epidemic which is wreaking havoc throughout Asia.

Port Health spokesman Simon Rowell said they were checking about 40 containers each with about 20 tons of frozen chicken.

"Of those about two-thirds are cooked chicken and cooked chicken will be allowed if has been heat-treated to at least 70 deg C," Mr Rowell said.

Every month about 200 containers of Thai chicken arrive at the port, but now raw chicken produced after 1 January this year is banned under European Union rules.

Flocks in 10 Asian countries have the virus

In Asia 10 countries have the virus in their flocks and eight people who have had close contact with birds have died after becoming infected.

It has been stressed that the risk of importing this virus through raw chicken is very low but the World Health Organisation is taking no chances.

"They are stopping any possibility of this virus coming into the country and stopping it getting into the bird flocks and into the human chain as well," said Suffolk Coastal District councillor Patricia O'Brien.

The WHO fear is that the virus could mutate, making person-to-person transmission a possibility.