Continued testing and monitoring have shown no signs of high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outside of Mainland Poultry’s farm at Hillgrove, Otago.
Biosecurity New Zealand deputy director-general Stuart Anderson said depopulation of layer sheds was expected to be completed on the 9th of December. The farm has remained under strict biosecurity lockdown.
"The depopulation to date covers all four layer sheds, which held a capacity of 160,000 chickens in total. We’ve had an animal welfare specialist on-site to observe depopulation operations,” said Anderson.
"Test results over the weekend confirmed that the HPAI H7N6 virus had spread to the final layer shed, which was not unexpected for this virus. We had already planned to depopulate this shed before those results came in as we knew that spread was almost certain.”
A separate facility on the farm, away from the layer sheds, that has housed 40,000 rearing chickens will also be cleared.
Anderson said that international experience showed that the only way to manage the risk of the spread of this virus was full farm depopulation, followed by cleaning and decontamination.
"We’ve moved quickly in the past week to put in restrictions, investigate, track, and test, and I thank the farmer involved and our industry partners for their help – together, we’ve made strong progress.”
To date, over 1,200 samples have been received, with hundreds being analysed at a time at an enhanced PC3 laboratory at Wallaceville in Wellington.
The response team involved more than 200 staff across MPI. They have continued investing significant resources into eliminating H7N6 and were confident they were on the right track to stamp it out.
Given the size of the national flock, there remains no risk to the eggs and chicken supply in New Zealand, no issues for food safety, and the risk to human health remains low.
