At one time poultry was relatively expensive, but over the years it has become more affordable as faster-growing, meatier birds were bred and more efficient management systems developed. The end result is that chicken and turkey have become very economical, everyday meals.

Even ducks and geese have followed that trend so that they can also be enjoyed by all instead of being luxuries confined to the well-off.

The intensification of poultry production has led to supermarket shelves and freezers full of perfectly-presented, oven-ready turkeys and chickens at knock-down, bargain prices.

Mind you, many of those birds will have been prepared and frozen weeks ago, because modern poultry production is an ongoing, factory-type process.

It's all a far cry from not so long ago, when farmers' wives ran small seasonal poultry enterprises for the lucrative Christmas trade. Batches of day-old or slightly older "off heat" poults (chicks starting to grow feathers) were bought and carefully reared in redundant buildings and sheds. Those rearing two or three hundred may well have had a better shed or building more specifically adapted to the task.

Those traditionally reared birds, when properly hung after slaughter, are absolutely delicious.

Not that there is anything wrong with the birds sold in supermarkets. The only problem with poultry meat is that many consumers do not understand the risks posed by campylobacter.

A recent study by researchers from the University of Manchester found that almost three-quarters of the consumers they interviewed did not associate campylobacter - the most common cause of food poisoning - with the poultry-meat they buy.

The report found they were much more understanding of a link between salmonella (75 per cent) and E coli (50 per cent) with chicken. Campylobacter came third, just ahead of listeria (21 per cent) and botulism (15 per cent).

The industry has been working hard to reduce contamination of poultry-meat with campylobacter. Recent data from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) revealed that campylobacter was present on 76 per cent of chicken samples in July to September, down from 83 per cent in the same months of last year.

Despite the high levels of contamination, poultry-meat is safe as long as consumers follow good kitchen practice. That includes covering raw poultry and storing it on the bottom shelf of the fridge so juices cannot drip onto other foods and contaminate them with food poisoning bacteria.

Don't wash raw poultry meat as that can spread germs by splashing, but remember to thoroughly wash and clean utensils, chopping boards and surfaces used to prepare such meat. Also wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water after handling raw poultry as this helps stop the spread of campylobacter by avoiding cross contamination.

Finally, make sure the birds are steaming hot all the way through before serving. Cut in to the thickest part of the meat and check that it is steaming hot with no pink meat and that the juices run clear.

The poultry industry is no stranger to food scares such as the one started by former Health Minister Edwina Currie in 1988 when she claimed that most of Britain's egg production was infected with salmonella bacteria. That led to massive losses and 4m hens being slaughtered as well as the destruction of 400m eggs.

Egg sales plummeted despite the risk of an egg being infected with salmonella reckoned to be less than 200 million to one. The government was forced to offer a compensation package of millions of pounds to cover the cost of purchasing surplus eggs and for the slaughter of unwanted hens.

A raft of measures were introduced into the poultry industry including movement restrictions, compulsory slaughter and disinfection procedures, as well as a voluntary, industry-led vaccination programme that began in breeding flocks in 1994 and in laying flocks in 1998.

Those measures have led to a dramatic fall in the number of cases since the late 1990s. Legislation requiring compulsory slaughter of poultry infected with salmonella has now been revoked, but the mass vaccination of poultry has continued by those breeders subscribing to the Lion Quality Code of Practice and using the Lion Mark on eggs.

Controlling disease in poultry is hampered by the significant increase in numbers of backyard keepers. Unlike other species there is little in the way of control and recording of poultry movements and location, presenting a significant risk for spread of disease and hindering control efforts in the event of an outbreak.