Wednesday, May 22, 2024

More Avian Influenza problems for big Victorian egg producers

 

A suspected outbreak of Avian Influenza has been discovered in Victoria. Preliminary tests have confirmed the presence of avian influenza on a farm at Meredith in Golden Plains Shire. Samples have been delivered to the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness at Geelong for further tests which will determine the strain of the disease.

The property has been placed into quarantine and Agriculture Victoria staff are on site. In August 2020, Farm Pride Foods confirmed that it had lost a third of its productive hen stock after an outbreak of the H7N7 avian flu virus at two of its farm facilities in Lethbridge, near Geelong. The outbreak affected a total of 380,000 hens, with the company subsequently downgrading its full year FY2021 revenue forecast by $18 – 23 million.Avian influenza  spread to a second poultry farm in Victoria, , which has resulted in more than 500,000 birds being euthanased. Thankfully it is normally only a problem on intensive farms were large numbers of bird are held. Here's the infected location, near Lethbridge.


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