Ananova:

Experts examining Britain's latest outbreak of bird flu in a flock of free-range turkeys are expected to determine if it was the highly-infectious H5N1 form of the disease.

Scientists were understood to have stayed up throughout the night to continue tests on the strain found at a rearing unit in Redgrave, Suffolk.

Bird flu's return to British shores is yet another blow to farmers, who are already struggling to recover after being hit by foot-and-mouth and bluetongue.

There are fears bird flu could spread and devastate the hugely-profitable Christmas trade in poultry meat, which would add to the huge losses already caused by the other diseases.

About 5,000 birds on the infected farm, including ducks and geese, were being culled after testing positive for the contagious H5 strain.

The alarm was raised on Sunday after a rise in death rates among the birds, which are owned by poultry producer Gressingham Foods, based in Woodbridge, Suffolk.

About 6,000 birds were on the site when the virus emerged and the site's operations director Geoff Buchanan said about 60 turkeys in a flock of 1,000 had tested positive.

Government vets immediately began trying to establish if they had the highly-pathogenic form of the disease, and are expected to have a better picture of the outbreak's seriousness later on Tuesday.

Mr Buchanan said his firm was co-operating with the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and that it was hopeful the latest outbreak would be contained."

National Farmers' Union poultry board chairman Charles Bourns said the cull was only a small proportion of the 10 million turkeys bought for Christmas each year.