Cull ends at bird flu-hit farms

Poultry was killed in the cull to prevent the spread of the disease

The cull of poultry on four sites suspected of being infected by bird flu has ended, the government has said.

More than 28,000 birds were slaughtered following a suspected outbreak of H5N1 bird flu, a variant of the disease capable of being transmitted to humans.

Laboratory tests are still under way on samples taken from the Suffolk sites.

The news comes as Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said the farming industry may have to bear more of the cost of such disease outbreaks in the future.

The virus was discovered one week ago at Redgrave Park Farm near Diss, on the Norfolk and Suffolk border.

Following the discovery of dead birds, a 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone were immediately set up, and remain in place.

Mr Benn has now said farmers may need to bear the brunt of disease outbreaks, following a year when farms across the UK have been struck with foot and mouth disease, bluetongue disease and bird flu.

Cost

The cost of animal infections is thought to have cost the government and taxpayer more than £120m this year.

The proposal comes amid concern at the prospect of up to £270m of cuts at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Ministers are considering the savings to help balance the books after the recent outbreaks of disease.

The farm payments fiasco and the summer's catastrophic floods are also believed to have contributed to the need to scale back spending.

Mr Benn said the farming industry needed to be given more of a say in dealing with such diseases.

He said: "That is the direction in which we want to move. Is it unreasonable to ask the farming community to bear more of the cost of taking the decisions to deal with animal diseases?"

The affected poultry were free-range - meaning they had access to the outdoors and may have been at greater risk of catching the disease.

There was a H5N1 outbreak at a turkey farm, also in Suffolk, in February.