You have to feel sorry for the 160,000 turkeys on a farm at Holton, in Suffolk, now facing the chop after three thousand of their colleagues succumbed to the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

They probably got away with Christmas on the grounds that Farepak collapsed - thousands upon thousands of Christmas hampers went unpacked, so our feathered friends were given a stay of execution.

Only, sadly, for Christmas to catch up with them a month and a bit later. Whoever sneezed first in that barn last night must have experienced an all-too-fleeting moment of the deepest unpopularity before they expired.

There's some horrific pictures on the BBC News website, showing turkeys apparently being emptied from a truck into a container as the authorities try to contain the outbreak.

Meanwhile here in Berkshire all thoughts turn to how we're going to cover this story.

Last year we put a piece of broadcasting kit in a farmhouse in West Berkshire - if bird flu appeared in the area, it meant we could get a local farmer on air in good sound quality almost immediately.

Two months ago we sent an engineer out to bring all that kit back, since it was felt we needed it elsewhere. Do we rush it back in place in the expectation that H5N1 will wend its way across the south? Will our roving reporter be stood in the middle of nearest turkey farm come Monday morning? There's about three people in this newsroom all weekend, so resources aren't exactly overflowing, but if I were you I'd put money on the sound of gobbling on your radio this coming week.