Fowl virus may affect $141m trade
An infectious disease that poses no risk to humans has potentially hit a hen layer farm in Otago and could impact the multimilliondollar chicken meat export industry.
Biosecurity NZ said further testing was needed to confirm whether the infectious bursal disease virus type 1 was present on the Mainland Poultry farm at Waikouaiti. Results should be known by the middle of this month. A second Mainland property near Waikouaiti has returned suspect results which are still being confirmed.
The results are a blow to New Zealand’s poultry industry, which has escaped some of the world’s most serious poultry diseases such as infectious bursal disease, Newcastle disease and avian flu. Executive director of the Egg Producers Federation Michael Brooks said exports to the value of $141 million could be affected. This was made up of $63m of meat, largely to Australia, and the remainder live chickens and fertilised eggs.
The extent of the damage depended on which countries required a guarantee that New Zealand was virus-free.
Biosecurity NZ response manager David Yard said preliminary test results indicated the virus was ‘‘highly likely’’ to be present on the farm but further testing was required to confirm this.
Departmental chief scientist Dr John Roche said the virus could affect the immune system of young chickens but it posed no risk to human health or other animals. ‘‘There is no food safety risk with this virus and people should have no concern eating chicken meat or eggs. There will be no impact on domestic egg and chicken meat supply.’’
Yard said that while
Biosecurity NZ was waiting for final confirmation from an overseas laboratory, it would stop issuing certificates for the export of chicken products to countries that require a guarantee New Zealand is free of the disease.
It would affect trade with four countries, with Australia being the largest importer of New Zealand chicken meat.
Testing of other South Island layer and meat chicken farms is under way.
Yard said there were different types of the disease – types 1 and 2. Type 2 is already in New Zealand and causes no significant
health issues in the national flock and is of no trade concern.
Most other countries in the world have type 1.
The virus could have entered New Zealand through imported veterinary medicines, travelling farm workers, and other imported goods.
Brooks said the disease was contagious among poultry aged 2-15 weeks. The affected farm had a mix of cages, colonies and free range hens.
The industry had carried out accelerated testing on egg and poultry farms around the country, and so far every region
tested had come back negative.
Otago and Southland were the two remaining regions and testing would be completed there in the next few days.
‘‘While we complete these final tests, operations at the Waikouaiti farm will continue as usual as none of their birds show any signs of illness. Mainland has exemplary biosecurity measures in place, and both Biosecurity NZ and the industry have confidence the virus will not spread from that facility. We had a IBD type 1 outbreak in New Zealand in 1993 and were able to eradicate it,’’ Brooks said.