A Norfolk turkey farmer says bird flu has put the "fear of God" into free-range producers - and he fears rising virus risks could drive people out of the industry.

Rob Morton has 1,000 free-range Christmas turkeys at Skeyton, near North Walsham - which are all now being kept indoors after the government enforced a mandatory housing order to halt the UK's worst-ever bird flu outbreak.

He said the constant virus threat, along with rising feed and energy costs, had ramped up the risks of free-range poultry production.

"It has put the fear of God into all poultry farmers - you could just be wiped out," he said.

"You get the phone pinging with [bird flu] alerts at 10 o'clock at night and you hope its nowhere close to you. I do feel for those other farmers.

"I know farmers who have had their birds culled out and that is their livelihood gone for this year.

"I think the housing order came in too late. It should have been a few weeks ago. I would not be surprised if there are more cases, even though everything is shut up now.

"We have got lots of space so that is no problem, but the turkeys get a bit niggly indoors. They like to be outside pecking away and enjoying themselves.

"We are doing all we can - foot dips, washing down, trying to keep our birds inside and the wild birds out, but it does not stop the fear. You get up each morning to check the birds and you don't know what you are going to find.

"I think people [farmers] will come back next year but they might need a different view on it.

"Maybe they go back to the old way of turkeys reared in big open barns, and you don't let them outside.

"We will look at it again. Hopefully we will get through this year, and then we will look at the risk in January and see what we do going forward. I think we will still do turkeys, but we might take a different stance on it."

Mr Morton said the crisis had not affected his orders - with almost 40pc of his birds already sold online, on a par with the same time last year.

"I think people will still buy turkeys," he said. "Yes, prices have gone up because of feed prices and everything else.

"I have put nearly £10 on a turkey, but spread over 10-12 people, in the grand scheme of things, I still think it is good value."