A government bird flu lockdown has come too late to save thousands of East Anglia's turkeys, chickens, geese and ducks, says a Norfolk poultry auctioneer.

With avian influenza cases continuing to rise, the government has enforced a mandatory housing order requiring all free-range and captive birds in Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of Essex to be kept indoors from October 12.

Since the order was announced on Saturday, a seventh case of bird flu was confirmed near Attleborough - prompting another poultry cull in Norfolk's virus hotspot.

It is part of a mounting regional epidemic which has become a major concern for East Anglia's poultry industry, as well as its treasured wild colonies of coastal and wetland birds.

Fabian Eagle is a poultry auctioneer who is also Norfolk county council's member champion for the rural economy.

He said most of his family's 600 rare poultry birds and ornamental waterfowl, kept near Swaffham, were either housed or contained 10 days ago to minimise the disease risk - but farms could not do that without an official housing order because they would lose their free-range status.

"The housing order will have some impact, but it has come too late," he said.

"It should have gone in earlier, and if there is a hotspot it should have been enforced much more within those zones.

"Doing nothing is not an option. People have got to get out of the mindset that this is a commercial poultry problem and not a wild bird problem or a backyard poultry problem. It is a bird problem, and we have all got to do everything we can."

Defra's regional housing order makes it a legal requirement for all bird keepers in Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of Essex to "keep their birds indoors and to follow stringent biosecurity measures to help protect their flocks from the disease, regardless of type or size".

The National Farmers' Union has urged the government to extend the regional order across the whole country to stop the disease spreading.

Although avian influenza can be devastating for birds, the UK Health Security Agency advise that the risk to public health is very low and the Food Standards Agency says it poses a very low food safety risk.

Poultry keepers and the public should report dead wild birds to the Defra helpline on 03459 33 55 77 and keepers should report suspicion of disease to APHA on 03000 200 301.