Bird flu spread fears means 500,000 chickens must be culled

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Victorians are being warned not to rush out and stock up on eggs, as two separate bird flu outbreaks stoke concerns over supply. Authorities are working around the clock to ensure both cases are contained- but the industry is not taking any chances.

Transcript

00:00 Tracking, tracing and containing the threat from bird flu.

00:07 It is very stressful at the moment, there's no doubt about it.

00:10 For the poultry industry it's very important that this disease is eradicated.

00:15 Authorities have detected two outbreaks on separate Victorian farms.

00:19 Different strains with the same cause, wild birds.

00:23 More than half a million chickens have had to be culled,

00:26 leading to concerns over falling supply and rising costs in the shops.

00:31 This is now an accessibility problem, it's not that you can't get eggs,

00:35 you just may not be able to get eggs in the traditional place that you know and love,

00:39 or possibly the brand. So it's really important that you shop around.

00:43 The US has now restricted imports of all Victorian poultry products from May 22nd.

00:48 It's a small market, but it's still a blow.

00:51 To stop the spread, poultry within 15km of the outbreaks will have to stay housed

00:57 in sheds or cages for at least 28 days.

01:00 And farms around the state have boosted biosecurity.

01:04 Really the key aim is to try and maintain a separation between wild birds and domestic poultry.

01:11 Avian influenza is a constant threat to the industry.

01:14 Wild birds carry the virus all the time.

01:17 To mitigate that, farmers say they avoid putting all their eggs in one basket,

01:22 mixing up their housing methods between free-range, cage and barn-laid spread over multiple locations.

01:29 No matter how good your biosecurity is as a farm, this will always simply be a risk.

01:35 Authorities say the risk to people remains very low,

01:39 but Australia did just record its first human infection from another strain of bird flu in March.

01:45 A 12-year-old boy returning to Melbourne from India, who's now fully recovered.

01:50 it.

01:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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