Bird flu contamination confirmed at Canberra farm, supermarkets impose egg buying limits

A Canberra poultry farm will need to be ‘depopulated’ of its chickens after avian influenza was confirmed at the property.

The ACT Government had received information on Tuesday (25 June) morning that a property could be infected with bird flu.

Lab results from the CSIRO in Geelong confirmed the virus is present at the farm.

The mutation detected in Canberra is the high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) strain H7N8.

It is linked to previous detections in the Hawkesbury region of NSW.

ACT Acting Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Kyeelee Driver said the virus wasn’t transported to Canberra through any live birds.

“This particular premise has become infected from equipment movement from the infected premise in NSW to this particular enterprise,” she said.

“The enterprise itself practises a very high level of biosecurity … [but] there is never no risk.”

The property has been quarantined and will be decontaminated while the birds will be euthanised (in line with national guidelines).

This is expected to take weeks.

Dr Driver said euthanising the chickens was the best option, from both biosecurity and humanitarian standpoints.

“Flu spreads very, very readily … all the birds will eventually suffer from this particular disease, so it becomes a significant animal welfare [issue],” she said.

Environment Minister Rebecca Vassarotti stressed there were no food safety concerns and the risk of transmission to humans remained very low.

“We are confident we have acted quickly to contain the affected site, with a low risk of spread to other poultry in the ACT,” she said.

“There’s no risk to Canberrans at this stage.”

The Canberra egg farm is joined to a packing shed which has been temporarily closed.

Major supermarkets are expecting short-term delays in restocking eggs in NSW, the ACT and Victoria as a result.

A Woolworths spokesperson confirmed its stores in those areas would be introducing a two-pack purchase limit on eggs from today (Thursday, 27 June).

“Supply is expected to recover over the next week as [the impacted supplier] ramp up operations at their other sites,” they said.

“Right now, the majority of customers are only buying one carton of eggs at a time, and there’s no reason that should change. We encourage shoppers to be mindful of others and continue to only buy what they normally would.”

Coles introduced an egg purchase limit across all stores in all states and territories (except WA) on 9 June following the Victoria detections.

Aldi currently has no purchasing limits.

If you suspect you have a biosecurity risk on your property or in your animals, contact the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.