CONTROL zones set up to prevent the spread of bird flu from farms infected with the disease in East Anglia will begin to lift from today, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

CONTROL zones set up to prevent the spread of bird flu from farms infected with the disease in East Anglia will begin to lift from today, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

The 3km protection zone put in to stop it spreading from Redgrave Park Farm where the virus was first discovered has been lifted.

The second protection zone, around Hill Meadow Farm, Knettishall, on the Norfolk/Suffolk border where turkeys also tested positive for H5N1, will lift on Monday, Defra said.

Both protection zones will become part of the surveillance zone, which will then lift along with the wider restricted zone on December 19.

Poultry owners in the restricted zone outside the surveillance zone will not have to house their birds indoors from Monday.