Further bird flu cases on Otago egg farm

The cases were found in a second shed on the farm, says Biosecurity New Zealand deputy director-general Stuart Anderson.

The property, managed by Mainland Poultry, was placed under a restricted place notice on Sunday after results from testing confirmed H7N6 strain in chickens from one shed on the property. The virus has likely developed from interactions with local waterfowl and wild birds.  

“The remote farm remains under strict biosecurity controls to restrict the movement of bird, poultry products, feed, and equipment on or off the property,” Anderson says. “The detection of further positive cases on the farm is not unexpected given the nature of the virus.”

He says the birds in both sheds, which total about 80,000-layer hens, would be humanely culled with the farmer’s cooperation and this is planned to start tomorrow.

“This is expected to take two to three days, using existing industry standard practice of CO2 containerised gas, which farms regularly use to euthanise chickens,” Anderson says.

He adds that it is not expected that there will be a significant impact on egg supplies because New Zealand has approximately 3.9 million-layer hens a year.

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Once the sheds are depopulated, they will then be thoroughly cleaned.

“It will be some time before those sheds can be safely repopulated,” Anderson says. “We have Biosecurity New Zealand response staff on-site in Otago, and they are providing advice and guidance, including logistics and planning with depopulation and disposal of the birds.”

Testing of other sheds on the property is continuing.

“If required, we will put more restrictions in place, however, at this stage, there have been no further reports of any avian influenza type symptoms showing in chickens in any other poultry farm,” Anderson says.

“We acknowledge this is an extremely difficult time for the farm’s operator, but we commend their actions,” he says.

“Mainland Poultry took the right steps by notifying us of sick and dying birds. The farm has strong biosecurity standards. Three specialist veterinarians from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) are on site.”

Those veterinarians have been carrying out further investigations and taking samples from birds and conducting tracing work to six other poultry farms in the area linked to the impacted property.

“We are also tracing all movements to and from the farm over the past week. We will place biosecurity controls on any property if we need to manage any biosecurity risk,” Anderson says.

He says next steps include continuing to collect samples for testing. The incubation period for the virus is usually 3-14 days, with a possibility up to 21 days, so testing will continue over the next 2-3 weeks.

“Biosecurity New Zealand has a comprehensive surveillance programme of all poultry properties in the area, where we are testing birds on those properties for any signs of avian influenza.”