Poultry and egg producers in lockdown as avian flu detected in WA

The H5N1 avian influenza strain has now been detected in two wild birds in the Esperance region of Western Australia, which has been confirmed with testing by CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness.

Until now, this virus has been causing a global animal pandemic across all continents except for Australia, said Dr Michelle Wille, who is a senior research fellow from the Centre for Pathogen Genomics at the University of Melbourne, and the Outreach Coordinator at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza at the Doherty Institute.

“Australia has formed a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Preparedness Taskforce with representatives from agriculture, environment, and human health. They’ve been looking at Australia’s weaknesses and trying to build resilience into wildlife, and they’ve undertaken a huge variety of different things,” Wille said.

“Unfortunately, everywhere that this virus has gone, it’s been really catastrophic ...There have also been really big impacts on industry,” she said. “For example, since the arrival of the virus in the US, more than 200 million chickens have been culled, which, of course, is bad for farmers and bad for consumers.”

On 22 June, Inghams Group Limited released a statement saying “the Company’s chicken breeder farms and grower network are located primarily in the Muchea, Gingin and Mogumber regions, north of Perth, which are approximately 690–770 km from Esperance. There has been no detection in commercial poultry, which includes Ingham’s operations and its supply chain.

“As a precaution, Inghams has moved to a state of heightened biosecurity vigilance to mitigate against any potential risks. This includes the implementation of a complete lockdown, preventing all non-essential access, across all the Company’s WA farms and processing operations. These measures are in addition to the already strict standard protocols observed at all times across Inghams’ operations.

“The Company continues to supply the Australian market as usual. A regional housing order to allow WA free range poultry to be kept indoors is being sought from the Australian Government’s Chief Veterinary Officer. Should this be enacted, an exemption order from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is in place to protect the continuation of free-range product supply and labelling. The Company is working closely with the relevant authorities and is receiving updated information as it becomes available, which will continue to inform its response and future actions taken.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Douglas Rissing