Bird flu Officials Investigating Hungary

· Embarrassment after ministers' silence
· Inquiry into link follows government denials

Guardian

Last night both the government and the company conceded that a consignment of partially processed turkey meat from the Bernard Matthews' plant in Hungary had been sent to Suffolk and was now at the centre of the investigations into the origins of the outbreak. It is believed that this meat could have become infected during a series of H5N1 outbreaks in the south of the country after Christmas.

Until yesterday it had been thought that the infection on the complex near Holton, Suffolk, was isolated to one of the 22 sheds where 2,500 birds died last week. The revelation that the disease had spread to other parts of the farm will raise questions about bio-security at the complex, which is said to be the safest in Britain.

After a week of denials by the company that there was any avian flu link between the Bernard Matthews plants in Suffolk and Hungary, a spokesman admitted last night that birds had been sent from Hungary to Suffolk after two serious outbreaks of H5N1 in Hungary last month. The potential link between Hungary and the UK was first raised by the Guardian on Monday.

Last night deputy chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg said the government was working with Hungary. "Our investigations have shown that a possible route of infection is poultry product imported from Hungary. It is important that this is investigated thoroughly," he said.

In a separate statement, Mr Landeg said: "Samples were taken from all of the other 21 sheds on the Bernard Matthews site. The turkeys were clinically healthy, but initial test results have identified that some of the birds in three sheds were infected with avian influenza. We will make results available as they come in."

A Health Protection Agency spokeswoman said that anyone who could have come into contact with dead or dying poultry would be offered anti-virals and seasonal flu vaccine. Approximately 1,000 people work at the processing plant, and several hundred others in the other infected sheds. The Observer revealed on is website last night that it had established that the suspect turkeys had travelled by lorry from the Hungarian plant and arrived in the UK a few days before January 27, when farmworkers began to notice the first signs of illness in the turkey chicks in one shed of the farm.

The website quotes an unnamed Whitehall source saying there were concerns about the bio-security at the Bernard Matthews processing plant next to the Holton farm, where the infected birds were found. Officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are now investigating how the disease could have spread throughout the plant.

The revelations are embarrassing for the government, which has apparently known about the trade between the Matthews plants since Monday, but has declined to tell the Commons or the EU. The environment secretary, David Miliband, made no mention of a trade in meat between the plants when he made a statement to the Commons on Monday, nor was it revealed by Lord Rooker, the agriculture minister, in the Lords yesterday.

Lord Rooker confirmed that there had been no importation of chicks or eggs into Britain, but did not mention the possibility that carcasses had been transported into the plant. Health officials also told EU vets on Tuesday that they did not believe there was a link between the outbreak at the Bernard Matthews farm and the recent cases in Hungary where Matthews also has extensive poultry interests.

Bernard Matthews denied vehemently throughout the outbreak that there was any trade between the plants. At the time, the company said: "All our birds are British. The fact that we have a Hungarian operation is immaterial. It's a complete mystery to us." Yesterday a company said: "We are cooperating fully and as a precautionary measure we have volunteered to cease any movements to and from