Australia’s largest outbreak of bird flu has hit a grim milestone, with Victorian authorities confirming more than 1 million birds will be killed to try and prevent the spread of the virus.
Seven farms across southwest Victoria have now been found with highly pathogenic strains of avian influenza, affecting hundreds of thousands of farmed birds.
The outbreak began on an egg farm near Meredith in May and has continued to spread in the region as local farmers face the harsh reality of Australia’s biosecurity response to outbreaks of emergency animal diseases.
Victoria’s chief veterinary officer, Graeme Cooke, said the latest infected farm housed between 150,000 and 200,000 egg-laying chickens.
“These latest infected premises were once again picked up on very early surveillance and that means it can be dealt with very early,” Dr Cooke said.
“I really thank producers within the restricted area where all the cases have been for their help and collaboration as we work our way through this outbreak.”
The death toll from the current outbreak of bird flu is more than double the state’s most recent outbreak in 2020, which resulted in the death of over 400,000 birds, including emus, turkeys and chickens, across the state.
The current outbreak is concentrated mostly to the Golden Plains Shire, one of the largest regions that produces eggs and chicken meat in Victoria, producing about a quarter of Victoria’s eggs.
A control zone is in place spanning approximately 100 kilometres from west to east across the region, covering six of the seven farms detected with the H7N3 strain of avian influenza.
“Control measures really reduce the level of virus in an area. The faster we can pick it up, the less risk there is of onwards spread,” Dr Cooke said.
“The requirements in the controlled areas, especially the restricted areas, are to prevent onward movement of the virus either by vehicles, people or other means.
“Meredith has consistently been detecting bird flu.
“If this virus was allowed to spread onward it would be devastating for the rest of the poultry industry in Victoria and perhaps onward through Australia.
“The right thing to do is to stop the infected premises from being any further risk, and that’s the action that is taken through the humane destruction and disposal and the onward cleansing and disinfection of the farms.”
An egg farm near Terang was also found to have bird flu within its chicken population last month, however, authorities found a different strain, H7N9.
Agriculture Victoria is investigating the cause of the outbreaks but so far it is believed the disease has spread from wild birds into domestic poultry.
