Farmers and butchers insist they are unconcerned by an MRSA outbreak in turkeys less than a month before Christmas.

Inspectors identified the infection in a flock of birds on an East Anglian farm, but Food Standards Agency and Defra officials insisted any risk to human health was very low and allowed the turkeys to be sold as normal.

It had initially been suggested consumer confidence could be damaged, but farms and butcheries across the Maldon area claim the discovery of the livestock strain of the superbug has been blown out of proportion.