A suspected outbreak of Avian Influenza has been discovered in
Victoria. Preliminary
tests have confirmed the presence of avian influenza on a farm at
Meredith in Golden Plains Shire. Samples have been delivered to the
Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness at Geelong for further
tests which will determine the strain of the disease.
The
property has been placed into quarantine and Agriculture Victoria
staff are on site. In
August 2020, Farm Pride
Foods
confirmed
that it had lost a third of its productive hen stock after an
outbreak of the H7N7 avian flu virus at two of its farm facilities in
Lethbridge, near
Geelong.
The outbreak affected a total of 380,000 hens, with the company
subsequently downgrading its full year FY2021 revenue forecast by $18
– 23 million.Avian influenza spread to a second poultry farm in Victoria, , which has resulted in more than 500,000 birds being euthanased. Thankfully it is normally only a problem on intensive farms were large numbers of bird are held. Here’s the infected location, near Lethbridge.
