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Is this killing shed the source of UK bird flu?

(Picture Turkish factory. Click on enlarge to see the route)

By SAM GREENHILL -

More by this author »Last updated at 23:19pm on 9th February 2007

Government scientists are convinced the deadly H5N1 virus found at the Matthews farm in Holton originated in Hungary, where 13,000 geese were culled last month after flu struck two farms in the town of Szentes.

Matthews has repeatedly claimed that there is “no connection” between a turkey farm he owns in Sarvar, north-west Hungary, and the infected farms 160 miles away in Szentes.

But I discovered that turkeys from the Matthews farm were taken to be slaughtered at the Gall Food abattoir in Kecskemet, only 30 miles from the infected farms.

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Officials are trying to establish whether the abattoir also handled geese from the Szentes farms and thus infected turkey meat which was then exported to the UK.

Signs outside the abattoir have pictures of both turkeys and geese, suggesting the plant is used to slaughter both species.

The Daily Mail has learned that lorryloads of turkey meat have been exported directly from Kecskemet to the UK on behalf of Bernard Matthews.

Hungary's chief vet, Miklos Suth, told us that, in the past year, 290 tons of turkey breast has been exported from Kecskemet to Britain.

In addition, a further 1,000 tons of turkey product has been sent to SaGa, Matthews's subsidiary in Sarvar. Slaughtered birds are understood to be transported back to Sarvar before the meat is brought to Britain in the form of turkey breasts. One such consignment is understood to have left Sarvar days before the first signs of illness were spotted in turkey chicks at the Suffolk plant on January 27. Mr Suth added that he estimated “two or three lorries a week” travelled to the UK direct from Kecskemet.

The 300 workers at the abattoir earn less than £150 a month to slaughter turkeys, chop them up and package them for delivery to Bernard Matthews in Britain.

At the end of their shift they pour through the gates on to buses belching black smoke to take them into the town. Mr Suth said that SaGa had been using the Kecskemet facility near the bird flu zone because its own slaughter facilities were overstretched.

"It seems Bernard Matthews has been wanting to slaughter a lot of turkeys - more than the company has capacity for at its own slaughterhouse. The turkey product is very popular in Hungary, and also abroad in the UK I think, and they wanted to increase production to a much higher quantity.

“Bernard Matthews's plant is in Sarvar but it was using the Gall Food slaughterhouse in Kecskemet.”

SaGa has insisted all week there could be no link.

A spokesman claimed: “Neither Bernard Matthews nor SaGa has any commercial connection with the farms where bird flu was found.” But he neglected to mention that it was using slaughter facilities virtually next door.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has said the two strains of bird flu were an exact DNA match, ruling out the possibility that it had been brought to the UK by migrating birds, because any carrier would have caused a slight mutation in the DNA.

Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said the Hungarian authorities were investigating whether there had been any “bio-security” breaches at the slaughterhouse. The government's chief scientist Sir David King said: “I would be confident saying (the source) is probably poultry and we know that fresh meat has been transferred from a plant in Hungary to the farm in Suffolk.”

The infected geese farms are ramshackle outfits close to the border with Romania, with crumbling buildings and rusting roofs. Bird flu took hold there at the end of last month.

Bernard Matthews said in a statement that it had suspended all movements between the UK and Hungary. The company refused to discuss how much turkey had been brought into the UK from Hungary and in what form.

Animal rights extremists have targeted the Suffolk factory with hate mail containing a powder which left a female worker needing medical attention for inflamed hands.

Bernard Matthews himself postponed a visit to Buckingham Palace to collect a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order medal awarded for services to charity. The palace said he had put off the investiture for “understandable” reasons.

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In het kort:

BM Hongarije ging ineens enorm veel kalkoenen slachten, dat waren er zoveel dat het eigen abbatoir het niet aankon. Daarom bracht het bedrijf ze naar een slachthuis 170 km verderop wat 30 km van de ganzenfarms lag die geïnfecteerd waren.

In dat slachthuis in Kecskemet zouden vrachtwagenladingen vol kalkoenen geslacht zijn en direct doorgevoerd naar Engeland. Tevens zijn vrachtwagens met geslachte kalkoenen naar de Hongaarse vestiging gebracht om de carcassen te versnijden tot borstfilets.

Koen