Statewide bird flu lockdown: call to lock up all Victorian poultry and birds

Commercial poultry producers want all farm and backyard birds locked up for at least a month, to minimise the spread of avian influenza.

The egg industry’s call to lock up all Victorian hens, ducks and other birds is likely to prove deeply unpopular with thousands of backyard poultry producers amid logistics challenges.

Egg and chicken meat producers are urging Victoria’s chief veterinary officer to issue a state-wide housing order, under which all commercial and backyard birds would have to be locked up for at least a month, to minimize the spread of avian influenza.

The Weekly Times understands CVO Graeme Cooke is considering the request, having already ordered all birds within the 10km to 20km restriction zones surrounding two avian influenza outbreaks at Meredith and Terang to be locked up.

Most commercial producers have already locked down their operations, to minimise the risk of the virus spreading, via the movement of eggs, birds, vehicles or people onto and off their farms.

“Even interstate players are nervous about sending vehicles into Victoria,” one industry leader said.

Self-imposed lock-downs have already disrupted poultry markets, with the slaughter of hens at Meredith and Terang taking three million eggs a week off Aldi and Coles shelves in NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

An Agriculture Victoria spokeswoman said it would continue to review necessary disease reduction measures.

“Any decision to expand the current housing requirement will be made based upon emerging evidence, with a science and risk-based assessment, and in consultation with experts and the Victorian industry,” the spokeswoman said.

“Agriculture Victoria, including the chief veterinary officer, meets regularly with industry, (which) has been productive in ensuring two-way communication and allows for industry voices to be heard.”

Industry leaders are urging Dr Cooke to extend the housing order across the entire state to protect their egg and chicken-meat industries, given both outbreaks are the result of free-range hens coming in contact with wild birds carrying two different strains of the virus.

Locking up all birds across the state, is likely to prove deeply unpopular with thousands of backyard poultry producers and difficult to enforce.

But without a state-wide housing order those free-range producers outside the Meredith and Terang restriction zones, risk breaching truth in labelling laws if they lock up their birds.

During Victoria’s last avian influenza outbreak in 2020 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission allowed producers to continue using free-range labelling, but only if they were in a zone covered by a housing order, which it regarded as an “exceptional circumstance”.