POULTRY workers across North Yorkshire are being urged to get a free flu jab from their GP.

The seasonal flu vaccination is being made available free to those who work in close contact with poultry - and there are around 1,000 poultry farms or premises where poultry are kept across North Yorkshire.

Those included are people who spend a lot of time in areas where live poultry are kept for rearing or egg production purposes or who handle live or dead poultry.

It also includes those who sort eggs in hatcheries or poultry houses, who collect and remove poultry manure or those who clean and disinfect live bird and evisceration areas in slaughter houses.

The county’s associate director of public health, Dr Phil Kirby, said: "Offering the vaccine to people who work with poultry is a precautionary measure that is part of the national NHS immunisation programme.

"Working in close contact with poultry means that there is a slight risk of catching the virus that causes bird flu if an outbreak of bird flu were to occur. If poultry workers are also infected with human flu at the same time, the bird and human flu viruses could mix in the body to make a new flu virus.

"A new flu virus produced in this way could potentially be very infectious and cause serious illness in other people as they would not have any immunity to a new virus."