ment of Primary Industries confirmed the outbreak earlier this month and has since announced that the culling up to 400,000 hens will take place to ensure the virus - which is the H7 avian influenza, not the pathogenic H5N1 strain - does not spread.The detection of the H7 avian influenza resulted in Hong Kong, one of the poultry industries major export markets, placing a temporary suspension of NSW poultry products.
Wambanumba Free Range hen farm located near Young in NSW had council approval for only 80,000 birds and the balance of 400,000 hens which were ordered to be destroyed came from a neighbouring caged egg facility only 800 meters away.
According to HSI, Wambanumba Free Range holds four sheds, silos and outdoor runs for hens, all enclosed in an area of just 1.6 hectares, representing stocking densities for hens of approximately 80,000 birds per hectare. Both Coles and Woolworths allow stocking densities of up to a maximum 10,000 hens per hectare for their private label brands.
According to HSI, Barnaby Joyce declared that free range egg production was the cause of the bird flu outbreak, however HSI says that the hens on the Young property did not meet the general consensus for the term free range, and as such, has angered many genuine free range producers.
HSI also states that there has never been a recorded incidence of bird flu on any genuine free range farm in Australia, and that it is the movement away from high stocking densities and factory farming that will minimise the opportunities for bird flu to spread and mutate.
HSI stated “genuine pasture raised free range birds do not suffer the same disease burden of factory farmed animals and the farming systems employed mean that birds have low stocking rates reducing direct contact, well managed pastures with moveable hutches and a more natural existence that allows them to build immunity to diseases such as bird flu.”
