Avian flu Australia: NSW case with one million Victorian bird deaths

One of Australia’s leading egg farmers reflects on the huge losses from avian influenza as it spreads to a second state.

Australia’s egg and poultry industry will take years to recover from the recent avian influenza outbreak, the Victorian Farmers Federation vice president says.

Danyel Cucinotta joined The Australian Ag Podcast to reflect on the outbreak, which Victoria’s chief veterinary officer has described as the state’s worst-ever avian outbreak.

The Werribee region egg farmer said the Meredith region may be at the epicentre of the outbreak but fears of the disease had rippled throughout Australia.

Her comments came shortly before the NSW government confirmed a separate strain of avian flu on Wednesday, identified in the Hawkesbury region near Sydney.

“Across Australia, it affects the supply chain. We’ve seen a quarter of our flock culled (in Victoria) we’re at almost 1.2 million birds culled to date over seven farms and it wouldn’t surprise me if there is one more farm to be found positive,” Ms Cucinotta said.

“There is another farm in that controlled environment that hasn’t necessarily been found positive at the moment and I really hope it doesn’t but it wouldn’t be surprising if we’re a farm away from controlling that entire area of Meredith.”

Earlier this month, chief vet Graeme Cooke issued a housing order across the Meredith and Terang regions to keep poultry indoors, away from influenza-infected wild birds.

Ms Cucinotta said the breeding of birds back to pre-outbreak levels would take years, with many farmers already enduring sleepless nights after nearby outbreaks.

“I’ve spoken to a few farmers personally and there’s such a fear of waking up (to an outbreak on their property),” she said.

“Fortunately, one of the farmers I was speaking to, the results came back completely negative. “But for two days that they were essentially in lockdown and not trading...the fear, the concern, the mental anguish that the family was going through.”

‘Over the Fence’ is sponsored by Ram Trucks Australia. You can listen to the full podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.