Egg Supply Shortage Continues in Australia Amid Bird Flu Outbreak HOBART, Australia -- The shortage in egg supplies continues to be felt...
Egg Supply Shortage Continues in Australia Amid Bird Flu Outbreak
HOBART, Australia -- The shortage in egg supplies continues to be felt across Australia on Monday as bird flu forced the shutdown of several chicken farms since before Christmas.
In Hobart, capital of Tasmania, there are no egg of any kind for sale at about 5 p.m. on Monday in either of the two major supermarkets of Woolworths and Coles.
A sales staff from Coles in Newtown Shopping Center said the shortage is Australian-wide and is the result of a bird flu outbreak before Christmas.
In Canberra, the varieties of eggs in Aldi supermarket have been reduced, with 700g caged eggs disappearing from shelf for at least two weeks.
Sydney Morning Herald reported earlier that about 450,000 chickens have been destroyed at a free range and caged egg farm in Young, New South Wales (NSW), creating a national shortfall, which will cause prices to rise and take six to 12 months to abate.
The NSW Department of Primary Industries said the virus is not the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, which has killed humans, nor is it closely related. But it has significantly dented supply and put pressure on prices.
The outbreak was detected in late October at the Langfield Pastoral Company, about 27 km north-east of Young in south-west NSW.
NSW Farmers Association Egg Committee chair Bede Burke said the farm was a "world class facility" and an outbreak of an exotic disease is something all farmers feared, particularly as more birds are free to roam.
It is understood the virus originated at the property's free range farm and soon spread to its neighboring caged farm.