Second shed at Moeraki chicken farm positive for bird flu

A second chicken shed at the Moeraki farm at the centre of new Zealand’s first case of pathogenic avian influenza has tested positive for a sub-type of the the disease.

Yesterday morning a shed at Mainland Poultry’s Hillgrove farm tested positive for avian influenza. Later that evening a second shed also tested positive.

“A second shed has now tested positive for the virus but at this stage it is still contained on that one farm,” a Mainland Poultry spokesperson told Crux.

A spokesperson for Ministry of Primary Industries, this morning said that brought the number of birds contaminated to 80,000.

 “The birds in both sheds (a total of 80 thousand) will be humanely culled and that will begin on Wednesday.

“It is expected to take two to three days, using existing industry standard practice of CO2 containerised gas."

University of Otago Virologist Professor Jemma Geoghegan points out, in this case, the H7 subtype involved does not spread easily to humans, and is of low risk to public health.

"The detection of H7N6 at a New Zealand farm is worrying, however it is not the H5N1 strain that we are most worried about.
"Usually the H7 subtype is low pathogenic and is found in wild birds without causing disease. On some rare occasions, these viruses can spillover to poultry and evolve to become high pathogenic where they cause severe disease. 

“This is what we saw happen in Australia a few months ago too. With chicken farms in such close proximity to wildlife, these sorts of spillovers are always a risk.”

A further update is expected at midday

Main image ( Google Earth): Mainland Poultry's Hillgrove Farm.