A highly pathogenic strain of bird flu has been detected at a third property in Victoria, with farmers warning it could exacerbate Australia’s egg shortage in coming months.
Agriculture Victoria on Thursday said the H7N8 strain of avian influenza had been detected at a third poultry farm at Euroa in Victoria’s north-east.
The detection occurred at a property belonging to Kinross Farms – the same business where influenza was found at two other sites.
Kinross Farms’ managing director, Philip Szepe, said the latest outbreak was “detected quickly and managed immediately”.
Hundreds of thousands of chickens were euthanased after the outbreak was detected at the first two properties earlier this month. Guardian Australia understands the number of chickens to be euthanased across the three properties will rise to about 500,000.
Meg Parkinson, the president of the Victorian Farmers Federation Egg Group, said the latest outbreak would extend the timeframe of supply issues that are being seen at supermarkets and grocery stores across the nation.
“It just means that it’ll take longer for the shelves to fill up,” she said.
Parksinon said it would take six months for the impact of the latest outbreak to flow through to stock on store shelves.
“It just depends on what happens. Hopefully this will be the end of it, but if there’s more [outbreaks] it will take longer,” she said.
Purchase limits on eggs remain in place at major supermarkets across Australia due to supply issues caused by the 2024 bird flu outbreak.
Victoria’s acting chief veterinary officer, Dr Cameron Bell, said given the close proximity of the infected farms, the latest detection was not unexpected.
Agriculture Victoria said its staff were working on the ground with industry to contain and eradicate the virus.
The outbreak of H7N8 avian influenza was first detected on 8 February at a Kinross egg farm in northern Victoria.
Szepe said Kinross Farms had been “closely monitoring” all of its farms since the start of the outbreak and it was “not unusual for an avian influenza outbreak to spread to neighbouring properties”.
“This latest outbreak was detected quickly and managed immediately, in line with well-established national response arrangements to manage an avian influenza outbreak,” he said.
“As previously mentioned, avian influenza doesn’t affect eggs or chicken meat, and we appreciate all customers who continue to support Kinross Farms.”
February’s H7N8 outbreak came only weeks after quarantine restrictions were lifted on the last property affected by Victoria’s 2024 avian influenza outbreak – Australia’s largest on record.
An exclusion zone, with a 5km radius around the farms, has been established as well as a broader control area.
Since the detection of the latest outbreak, control orders have been in place to restrict the movement of poultry, poultry products and equipment between properties in designated zones to prevent the spread of the disease.
A Coles spokesperson said it was closely monitoring the outbreak of avian influenza in Victoria.
“We will continue to work closely with all our suppliers to ensure eggs remain available for our customers,” the spokesperson said.
“To manage availability, we will continue to maintain the purchase limits that have been in place since the first outbreak in Victoria in 2024.”
Woolworths has had a two-pack purchase limit on eggs in all stores except Western Australia since mid-last year, due to supply impacts from the 2024 bird flu outbreak.
A spokesperson for Woolworths said the higher demand for eggs over Christmas and the new year period put an additional short-term strain on egg availability across all retailers but supply remained stable.
“Our egg supply has continued to improve and we are working closely with our suppliers to source as many eggs as possible.”
