Free-range Christmas turkeys facing an uncertain future
Free-range Christmas turkeys could become a thing of the past due to the impact of avian flu – with many farmers now warning production was “not worth the risk” unless a viable vaccine is developed.
Some 600,000 festive birds – representing about half the 1.2 million to 1.3 million free-range turkeys and geese earmarked for this year’s Christmas season – had now been lost to bird flu.
MPs on the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee heard that just over one million of the 8.5 million to nine million birds being prepared for the festive season had either died or been culled as a result of bird flu – though of indoor-reared birds were expected to hold up in the run-up to Christmas.