Ban over bird flu lifted at auction

12:15pm Tuesday 20th February 2007

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AUCTION mart bosses are celebrating after the ban on bird sales imposed following the avian flu outbreak in Suffolk was lifted.

Organisers of Clitheroe Auction Mart's popular Wednesday night fur and feather sale welcomed the news and said the restrictions had hit business hard.

The ban came in to affect when it was discovered that turkeys at a Bernard Matthews farm in Holton, Suffolk, were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu earlier this month.

As well as an exclusion zone around the Suffolk site and the slaughter of 160,000 birds, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) banned all bird sales and shows throughout England.

This has now been lifted in non-restricted parts of the country such as the North West and gatherings are permitted again under general licence. The ban will remain in place within the restricted zone.

The weekly sale at Clitheroe Auction Mart is one of the busiest in the North of England with up to 400 fancy birds such as cockatiels and parrots sold and 500 separate lots of poultry and pigeons being brought forward.

Chairman and managing director of Clitheroe Auction Mart Robert Parker said: "The lifting of the ban is a tremendous boost to business.

"The bird side is what the nights are really about and our phone has been buzzing from people who want to know whether we are back on.

"Without the ring full of birds there is no sort of focus for people to gather round.

"The ban did hit the sales quite hard."

He added: "We are termed as a bird gathering and this news means the poultry show we had planned but had to cancel can now be rescheduled for next month.

"You can not be overly optimistic because they haven't yet been able to trace the source of the outbreak and it could well be an annual problem that we have to face."