Factory farmed turkeys
Photo: Compassion in World Farming

NEWS was emerging this morning of yet another disastrous cover-up which could have devastating long-term effects on Britain's mass production food industry: it has been revealed that the Bernard Matthews turkey processing plant in Suffolk has been importing the carcasses of dead birds from its plant in Hungary which had already been hit by the deadly H5N1 avian 'flu virus.

All week, the Bernard Matthews spin machine had been saying although the Suffolk and Hungarian plants were under dual ownership, there had been no contact between the two either by human beings or vehicles.

But it emerged last night that turkey carcasses had been transported from the Eastern European plant to be processed at Holton where - it was revealed today - three other massive sheds may now have been infected. Last week, 160,000 birds were slaughtered in a single shed.

The news will be a devastating blow to the Bernard Matthews company and could do long-term damage to Britain's farming industry: several countries have already banned British poultry imports.

But the political fall out is likely to be even worse than the rows over the cover-ups over Mad Cow Disease and foot-and-mouth, where delays in making information public hastened the spread of the diseases.

Last week, Defra vets went on to television time and time again saying that the H5N1 strain, which has killed at least 160 people in South East Asia, had probably been spread via migrating water fowl which had infected small English birds which, in turn, penetrated the "stringent" bio-security defences that Bernard Matthews said were in place.

If it is proved that these vets, and their political bosses, knew of the Hungarian link but were trying to suppress it, this could be the final, fatal blow to the Tony Blair premiership.

• See A week in the country for further comment