Market ban on birds imposed as consumer alarm grows

The move is part of EU-wide measures to halt the spread of avian flu agreed last week. Show organisers in England may be able to obtain a special licence to allow events to go ahead based on a "specific veterinary risk assessment", said the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Measures to tighten control of the bird trade coincided with the first signs of consumer alarm about the safety of eating poultry and eggs. The London restaurant, Roussillon, in Sloane Square, which has a Michelin star, removed all dishes involving birds from its menu yesterday, as a precaution.

Its chef Alexis Gauthier, 32, said: "We have to feel comfortable that everything we put in front of our customers is safe."

Grouse, partridge and "top of the range" chicken could all potentially be affected, he said. "We do not know what the risk is but I feel if there is any risk, we should not take it."

Sales of chicken are reported to have fallen 40 per cent in Italy and 20 per cent in France since the scare over bird flu began. But the British Poultry Council said sales in the UK were unaffected. Its chief executive Peter Bradnock said: "British shoppers are very aware you can't catch avian influenza from eating poultry meat."

Ministers are in urgent talks with industry experts on the possibility of instructing poultry farmers to bring free-range chickens indoors, and a register of commercial poultry producers is to be established.

The Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, told Parliament yesterday that she would put before Brussels MEPs within days "sensible and measured regulations that will assist us in reducing the risk of disease and strengthening our ability to control an outbreak".

One option is culling some birds, and the Government is also looking at the potential for a vaccine for birds but Mrs Beckett added: "There is no validated vaccine which is available to us at present."

Emergency plans are being drawn up by Defra to deal with the carcasses of millions of chickens, turkeys and geese that would have to be culled in the event of a big outbreak of the virus.

Yesterday, Mrs Beckett said efforts were continuing to identify the source of the bird flu infection that killed two imported parrots. They were held with a consignment of 216 birds from Taiwan and testing was still under way, she said. Asked if it was safe to eat eggs, Mrs Beckett said: "The position with regard to food has just not changed. If you had doubts about eating raw eggs before, you should have them now."

The European Food Safety Agency advised caution on raw eggs but in the UK Dr Judith Hilton, head of microbiological safety at the Food Standards Agency, stressed there was no evidence to suggest that transmission via digestion was a danger.