New Zealand halts chicken exports as rare bird flu hits southern farm

New Zealandʼs poultry industry faced a set-back after finding bird flu at a chicken farm (making officials stop all exports right away)

The H7N6 bird-flu strain showed up at a farm in the south-eastern part of the country: its a different type than the world-wide H5N1 thats been going around lately

Until weʼve cleaned up the situation on this farm and assuming no other issues pop anywhere else then we will be able to export again

Officials need to watch things for about 3 weeks to make sure its all clear. Stuart Anderson from Biosecurity New Zealand says the virus isnt like the H7 type that hit Australia in mid-2024; theyʼre taking it real serious though

The good news is that no other farms got sick birds and people dont need to worry about getting sick. Hereʼs what people should know:

• Cooked eggs are still ok to eat
• Other poultry farms look fine
• No human health problems found
• Its different from global bird flu types

The clean-up team is working fast to fix things at the Otago farm - they want exports back on track as soon as possible