A BIRD market manager has slammed an animal welfare group for claiming his event could help spread the avian flu virus.

Clitheroe Auction Mart will tonight host the UK's first pet bird market since a Government ban aimed at halting the spread of bird flu and its transfer to humans was lifted on December 12.

Under the restrictions agreed by the European Union on October 21, and enforced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, all bird markets, shows, fairs, and similar events, where poultry or caged birds may be brought together were prohibited by law.

The Animal Protection Agency, a national pressure group campaigning against the trade in wild animals for pets, has now slammed the decision by DEFRA to lift the ban and let the markets go ahead.

It claims no individual risk assessments will be carried out at the markets and that bio-security measures will be 'virtually non-existent.'

The group says selling poultry alongside pet birds, which happens at Clitheroe, could undermine efforts to try and halt the spread of avian flu.

John Swingler, manager of Clitheroe Auction Mart, in Lincoln Way, hit back, saying: "They are entitled to their opinion, but they have got it all wrong.

"We do sell both pet birds and poultry, but they are sold in separate buildings.

"The RSPCA and trading standards officers are present at all our bird markets and the claims that we have no bio-security measures are absolute rubbish.

"We've had the same bio-security officer since Foot and Mouth Disease appeared in 2000, our cages are washed and disinfected every week and foot baths are placed at all entrances.

"Pets birds and poultry have been sold like this since I came to Clitheroe 12 years ago."

Between 300 and 400 pet birds, including some exotic varieties of parrot, will be sold tonight as well as up to 700 lots of poultry.

The Animal Protection Agency, which is based in Brighton, accused the Government of side-stepping a European-ordered ban on bird markets, designed to protect against the spread of the avian influenza virus. A spokesman said: "It is possible, if not likely, that the H5N1 virus is already at large within the UK pet bird trade.

Disease experts are alarmed that sales of poultry alongside pet birds will be allowed and that exotic birds will be sold at venues normally given over to the sale of poultry and other livestock."