Highly pathogenic avian influenza has spread to a seventh poultry farm near Melbourne, Australia’s Victorian state government said Monday.
Six properties are said to contain the H7N3 strain, and the seventh has the H7N9 strain. Neither is the H5N1 bird flu strain, which has infected billions of wild and farmed animals worldwide and raised fears of human transmission.
“A restricted and controlled area surrounds all infected homes,” the Victorian Department of Agriculture said in a statement.
Infected properties involves six egg farms and one duck farm. About 5 per cent of Australia’s egg-laying flocks have been killed or will be killed on farms with nearly 1 million chickens affected, the government said last week.
There is no shortage of eggs, although some retailers impose restrictions on purchases.
Australia has had nine outbreaks of highly pathogenic bird flu since 1976, the first of which was reported last month, the government said. It was all there and destroyed.
Authorities say ducks, chicken eggs and meat are safe to eat.
