Poultry farmers in Shropshire today moved to restore confidence in their industry following a bird flu outbreak in Suffolk, reminding consumers that British farms are governed by the toughest regulations in Europe.

With more than six million chickens reared in the county at any one time, Shropshire has always had a strong reputation as one of Britain’s premier producers.

And that should not change, said Craven Arms farmer and county chicken expert David Mills.

“I am regulated, I am inspected and I am covered with assurance all around to the point that I loathe it because of the time that it takes,” said Mr Mills, who has 178,000 broiler chickens at his Dinchope farm.

“Of course, if we do not do it we do not have a market, but consumers need to realise that we have the toughest safety measures in place in this country and there is nothing to be afraid of.”

Farmers will bear the brunt of any dent in consumer confidence as a result of the supermarket stranglehold on price said Charles Bourne, chairman of the NFU poultry board.

“There is the likelihood that there could be an effect on sales and that is really what is going to hit me,” he explained.

“If chicken sales drop by five per cent that means we produce 16 million chickens a week in this country and some 800,000 are not wanted. That will affect the market and prices will go down. Of course we are concerned.”

Whitchurch farmer Simon Latter, chairman of the regional NFU, said it was important to put the outbreak in perspective.

“The latest episodes have all been controlled and that has been the end of it,” he said. “What we need is cooks and restaurants to have confidence in our meat and continue putting British chicken on the menu.”

One supermarket group admitted the previous bird flu scare, in which a swan with the H5N1 virus was discovered in Scotland last spring, led to a drop in sales, a pattern that has been repeated in other countries.

But the Sainsbury’s spokeswoman said: “Because the UK has been affected later than the rest of the world, UK consumers are wiser than the first time around and know the real risks, rather than worrying about it.”

As she moved to reassure customers their poultry and egg products were safe and supplies were unaffected.

The first birds died on Tuesday and, after a Bernard Matthews vet concluded the disease was “unidentifiable” Defra was informed on Thursday, a Bernard Matthews spokesman said.

Defra has set up a restricted area of more than 800 square miles surrounding the farm where the outbreak occurred in a bid to contain the virus.

By Farming Correspondent Nathan Rous