Suffolk bird flu: Restriction zone lifted at farm

Some of the chickens were found to have a strain of avian flu

A restriction zone around a farm which had an outbreak of bird flu has been lifted.

The discovery of the H5 strain of avian flu at the Suffolk farm in December led to a cull of 27,000 chickens.

A 1km (0.6 mile) exclusion zone was put in place at Athelington, near Eye, on 10 December but was lifted on Wednesday by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

No evidence of bird flu was found at nearby farms.

Public Health England previously said the risk to the public was very low, while the Food Standards Agency said there was no food safety risk as long as poultry products were thoroughly cooked.

The outbreak was discovered at a farm in Athelington, near Eye in Suffolk

The outbreak at the farm was confirmed on 11 December and identified as "low pathogenic avian flu" (LPAI).

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is the more serious type of the disease which can prove fatal to birds.

In 2017, some 23,000 chickens were destroyed at Bridge Farm in Redgrave on the Suffolk/Norfolk border after the H5N8 avian influenza virus was found,

In June that year the same strain was identified in about 35 chickens and geese at a farm near Diss in Norfolk.