Outbreak of bird flu hits egg supply

Almost 10 per cent of the nation’s commercial egg-laying chicken flock has been euthanised as a result of avian influenza outbreaks across three states, straining the supply of eggs to consumers.

Workers at the Meredith Chicken Farm, west of Melbourne in Victoria, go through a cleaning station before entering the premises. Picture: Mike Dugdale

Almost 10 per cent of the nation’s commercial egg-laying chicken flock has been euthanised as a result of avian influenza outbreaks across three states, straining the supply of eggs to consumers.

Outbreaks across 11 sites, including the latest confirmed in the ACT on Thursday, have led to the killing of 1.8 million chickens – about 7 per cent of the national egg-laying flock – in a bid to prevent the deadly virus from spreading.

Eight farms in Victoria and two in NSW are also affected, with authorities suspecting the disease spread from wild birds.

While the industry has been quick to insist it has the egg-laying capacity to meet demand, the supply of eggs to the eastern states has been hampered by the temporary closure of an egg-packing shed due to an outbreak.

Some supermarkets have introduced buying limits and the government has urged shoppers to purchase based on need and not to panic-buy.

Rowan McMonnies, the chief executive of industry representative group Australian Eggs, said while the proportion of affected egg laying chickens were affected, there would still be eggs available for customers.

“There’s still 20 million layers available and will continue to produce over winter so eggs will remain available, but that’s not to diminish the fact that these are very significant events,” Mr McMonnies told The Australian.

Authorities have engaged the nationally agreed response plan in an attempt to contain the spread of the viruses, with movement restrictions put in place and affected producers forced to euthanize their birds.

“There’s a set plan and we are stepping through that plan,” Mr McMonnies said.

“We are doing all the right thing with a view to containment in what are clearly challenging circumstances.

“We are very hopeful that by doing all the right things by putting in place the containment the movement controls to the population and decontamination steps that it will be contained from further spread.”

So far, the H5N1 virus strain that is causing chaos globally and has spread to humans and cattle has not been detected in poultry in Australia, but a person, who is believed to have contracted the virus in India, tested positive for the strain in March.

The child made a full recovery, the Victorian Health Department said.

The strain detected in the ACT on Tuesday was H7N8, which is the same strain that was detected at an egg farm in the Hawkesbury district of NSW last week.

Outbreaks in Victoria are the H7N3 and H7N9 strains.

Nine outbreaks of HPAI have occurred on poultry farms in Australia between 1976 and 2021, but none have resulted in as many deaths as the current outbreak.

Previous outbreaks have been successfully eradicated through a containment strategy.

Restricted and control areas have been put in place around farms affected by the current outbreaks and will be thoroughly cleaned once the poultry have been disposed of.

A duck farm is among those affected.

Some trading partners who import Australian poultry products have altered the conditions under which they will accept produce from Australia and the government has been scrambling to minimise further trade disruptions.

While producers are compensated for the loss of their poultry, they do not receive compensation for loss of income as a result.

Woolworths on Thursday introduced a two-carton limit to the number of eggs customers can buy in supermarkets in NSW, ACT and Victoria.

The supermarket said the temporary limit was to offset a “delay” in stock caused by the outbreaks and a temporary closure of a supplier’s packing shed.