ISA Brown chickens feeding at Taluka Park Farm in Exeter, Australia. -Bloomberg
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The government of the Australian state of Victoria announced the discovery of a highly contagious strain of the virus that causes bird influenza on a fourth poultry farm near Melbourne, and close to two farms where the virus was discovered earlier.
Bird flu
Officials say that there is no danger to the public from eating eggs and poultry meat, and on May 23, Australia recorded a case of highly contagious avian influenza, which was discovered on a poultry farm in the state of Victoria in the southeast of the country, a day after the country announced the first human infection with the virus, and the discovery of Breed on a farm for egg production.
This human infection belonged to the same strain of the “H5N1” virus, which spread rapidly around the world, but the cases that were discovered on farms in the state of Victoria were of the “H7N3” strain.
In a statement, the authorities in Victoria linked the strain discovered at a poultry farm in the Terang area to that detected at an egg production farm in Meredith, and said that the “highly contagious H7N3 strain” of the bird influenza virus led to the death of a number of poultry.
“The farm in Terang is directly linked to Meredith Farm as the management is shared, as are the employees and machinery,” she added.
Victoria was also the site of an H7N7 outbreak in 2020, the latest of nine outbreaks of highly infectious bird flu in the country since 1976, all of which the government says were quickly controlled and eliminated.
On May 25, the US Department of Agriculture announced a ban on the import of poultry products from the state of Victoria in Australia after discovering an outbreak of the bird flu virus.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said in a statement that the announced restrictions include birds and eggs, and will remain in effect until further notice. These restrictions apply only to products that originate in, or pass through, Victoria, and do not include other Australian states.
In the United States, last month, American officials confirmed a second human case of bird flu since the virus was first discovered in dairy cows in late March.
The outbreak of the H5N1 virus among dairy cattle in at least 9 US states since late March has raised concerns about the possibility of it being transmitted to humans.
The outbreak exacerbates growing international concern about bird flu, especially the H5N1 strain, which is spreading globally, although it has not been reported in Australia.
ABC
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