How Many Turkeys Have Been Slaughtered At Bernard Matthews In Suffolk Because Of The Bird Flu Outbreak? (Jan 07)

159,000 (One hundred fifty-nine thousand).

The farm is at Holton in Suffolk which is about 20 miles from Lowestoft.

Original estimate was that up to 170,000 birds would have to be slaughtered, but turkey farms don't always know exactly how many birds they have on site (mortality rate among factory farmed birds is pretty high, anyway).

Only one shed in almost 2 dozen was found to have H5N1 (the scary bird flu) in it, but the other shed-fulls of turkeys were slaughtered as a precaution. They are being disinfected, vacuum sealed into plastic bags and transported across country to a processing centre. There they will be melted down at high temperatures to kill any possible remaining virus.

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