experience an egg shortage over the festive season, after a bird flu outbreak caused 450,000 chickens and three million eggs to be destroyed.The chickens were from a free range and caged egg farm in Young, NSW and while they weren’t infected with the H5N1 strain which has killed humans, they had to be destroyed and this is creating a national shortfall, which will force prices up, the SMH reports.
Adding to this, one of Australia’s biggest egg processors, Farm Pride Foods in Melbourne, has had to cancel orders because of the outbreak.
The DPI has quarantined both farms, which will be shut for a number of weeks.
NSW Farmers Association Egg Committee chair Bede Burke said demand for eggs normally doubled in the week before Christmas ‘‘but this year the eggs won’t be there.”
‘‘The comfort level for eggs in NSW is about 1.4 million dozen to fill the cool rooms at the end of the week. We are well under that now, down about 15 percent,’ he said.
Burke said this Christmas consumers might have to change the brand of eggs they buy, or purchase a different category, for example a 600g pack rather than an 800g pack.
The shortage has already lifted farm gate prices, he said, jumping 10 cents a dozen.
NSW chief veterinary officer Ian Roth said the virus appears to have been confined to the two properties.
‘‘There is no indication that the virus has spread beyond the two properties, and the DPI is working with the owners to recommence operations,’’ he said.
The H7 Avian Influenza strain was first reported to the Department of Primary Industries in October.
