THE Government tonight admitted that poultry products from the Suffolk farm at the centre of the British bird flu outbreak could have been moved out of the restricted area.

THE Government tonight admitted that poultry products from the Suffolk farm at the centre of the British bird flu outbreak could have been moved out of the restricted area.

An exclusion zone has been in place around the Bernard Matthews plant in Holton, since the deadly strain of H5N1 took hold there more than a week ago.

But it has been claimed lorry loads of meat have been transported to Hungary, the country at the centre of investigations into how the strain came to Britain, from the UK plant at the centre of the outbreak.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) conceded it could have done so if licensing requirements for movement outside the restricted zone were met.

Hungary's chief vet Lajos Bognar earlier told Channel 4 News meat had left the plant in Holton and arrived back at Bernard Matthews' Hungarian plant on either Wednesday or Thursday.

“I can say that from the protection zone, from the UK, six trucks arrived from there last week, to Hungary, from the protection zone,” Mr Bognar said.

For the full story see Monday's EADT.