At least 30,000 turkeys are set to be culled at an East Anglia farm following another UK outbreak of bird flu.
The highly-pathogenic H5N8 strain of avian influenza was detected in turkeys being reared at a farm near Snetterton, Norfolk, on Friday.
The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has not identified the farm but confirmed the birds will be humanly culled as a precaution.
A spokesperson said: ‘A veterinary investigation is on-going on this site to identify the likely source of infection and establish how long the disease may have been present on the infected premises.
‘The strain of HPAI H5N8 which has been confirmed in several poultry premises in England appears closely related to the virus currently circulating in wild and captive birds in Europe.’
It comes after it was confirmed that more than 10,000 turkeys would be culled at a farm in North Yorkshire after avian flu was detected there on November 28.
Defra previously said it did not expect there to be any impact on the supplies of turkeys or other birds in the run-up to Christmas.
But on Friday it announced tough new measures to combat the disease amid the fears.
Under the measures, all poultry flocks including free range birds will have to be kept indoors in England, Scotland and Wales from December 14 to keep them separate from potentially infectious wild birds.
It is the latest in a series of bird flu scares in the UK, with the threat from the virus raised from ‘low’ to ‘medium’ and then to ‘high’ in the country in weeks.
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