AT first glance, it is a small, nondescript airfield on the edge of Norfolk.

Yet the former Attlebridge RAF base has already suffered the fate experts say could face every poultry farm in Britain - bird flu.

It was in 1991 that Britain's only recorded outbreak happened, on a farm run by Bernard Matthews, the biggest turkey farmer in Europe.

Thousands of birds had to be culled and the seven-mile area around the farm became a restricted zone.

Not surprisingly, residents fear it happening again. A man in nearby Lenwade, who worked in the area in 1991, said: "It was all quite frightening at the time but it was kept very hush-hush, which made it all the more worrying because no one really knew what was happening.

"Now we know more and, with the recent news, there is a real fear it might not just be the birds this time. Of course, a lot of people work for Bernie, so we have to be careful what we say."

A woman said: "My dad works at one of the farms so I'm scared for him. I know they are taking precautions but you still never know, do you? There's an underlying fear among normal people's everyday conversations."

In December 1991 the residents of villages around the old Attlebridge airfield became aware of the problem as 8,000 turkeys were slaughtered.

According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the outbreak began when a migrating bird with low-grade avian flu infected a flock of turkeys.

The virus then spread between birds and mutated into a more serious strain of the disease - but not as deadly as the H5N1 strain which has infected birds in Romania recently. A spokesman for Defra said the two strains could be regarded as "distant relatives on the same family tree".

He added: "It evolved into a high pathological strain of the virus and, upon discovery, the infected birds were culled. Due to the good bio-security measures employed by the owners, the disease was contained." Now Norfolk residents are only too aware that bird flu has the potential to kill humans.

A shop assistant in the village of New Costessey said: "It was all people could talk about last time; this time we are really worried.

"Even if it's just birds, there are people who could lose their jobs.

For many people it's no birds, no jobs. There's also a fear of what we are not being told.

"Could we really be facing seeing our neighbours become very ill and [even] die?" Another resident said: "The discovery of the disease around here would be a terrible blow. It would be another foot-andmouth disease scenario."

A spokeswoman for the Crowshall veterinary surgery, which was involved in the 1991 outbreak, said: "It's a concern here every year but this year more than most."

A spokesman for the Bernard Matthews company said today it was "following all government advice" to prevent another outbreak.

The first human death from avian flu was in Hong Kong in 1997.

Outbreaks since then have been largely confined to Asia, with 64 deaths and hundreds suffering respiratory illnesses. In Thailand, the virus has claimed a new human victim, taking the country's death toll from avian flu to 13.

Last week, it was revealed that 2,000 birds in Turkey were infected and that the H5N1 strain had been found in birds in Romania. Tests are also being carried out on turkeys on a Greek island.

EU health ministers are meeting in Hertfordshire today to discuss how best to prepare for a pandemic. In addition, the Health Protection Agency is to co-ordinate a Europe-wide exercise to see how organisations would cope with a pandemic.

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