{"id":754016,"date":"2026-06-23T01:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T01:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/754016\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T01:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T01:23:11","slug":"bird-flu-australia-egg-prices-could-skyrocket-now-deadly-disease-flu-has-landed-in-wa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/754016\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu Australia: Egg prices could skyrocket now deadly disease flu has landed in WA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The H5N1 bird flu has landed in Australia<\/a>, and it could send grocery bills soaring if or when it infiltrates poultry farms across the country.<\/p>\n

If the deadly disease<\/a> spreads to poultry, it could decimate Australia\u2019s production and supply of products like chicken and eggs.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The H5N1 bird flu could lead to an egg shortage and price hikes.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

That could cause a shortage and force farmers to hike prices, meaning Aussies would have to pay more for a roast chook or carton of eggs at the supermarket.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Minister Julie Collins dodged questions about how H5N1 bird flu<\/a> could affect the price of poultry products on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

She told ABC the government is doing \u201ceverything that we can\u201d to protect poultry farmers and other primary producers from the potentially devastating disease.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have invested well over $100 million in our preparedness in terms of getting ready for the H5 bird flu, should it arrive in Australia,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always known we could not stop it, because it would arrive by migratory birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only two H5N1 bird flu cases have been confirmed in Australia so far, both in wild birds from the same region of Western Australia.<\/p>\n

That figure is expected to grow in the days and weeks ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still in the investigation stage, we\u2019re still determining whether or not this is widespread in Australian wildlife,<\/a> or whether it is just a few isolated cases at this point in time from migratory birds,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n

Inghams Group, Australia\u2019s largest poultry producer, isn\u2019t taking any chances.<\/p>\n

It announced new precautionary measures across all of its WA sites on Tuesday in response to the H5N1 bird flu threat, including a complete lockdown of the state\u2019s farms and processing operations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also seeking federal government approval to start housing its free-range chickens indoors to protect them from the disease.<\/p>\n

Epidemiologists raised the alarm about H5N1 bird flu<\/a> long before it arrived on Australian shores.<\/p>\n

The disease has killed millions of birds around the globe, infected many other animals, and has even spread to humans in some cases.<\/p>\n

Until recently, Australia had been free of the H5N1 strain.<\/p>\n

\"Australia\u2019s<\/p>\n

This brown skua, found at Cape Le Grand National Park near Esperance and taken in by a carer, is Australia’s first confirmed H5 strain case.\u00a09News<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the country is well-prepared for the disease according to Adelaide University chair of biostatistics Professor Adrian Estermanz, even if it makes the jump from animals to humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is that there is a good vaccine against it, and it\u2019s actually made by our own [manufacturer],\u201d Esterman previously told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if it did turn out that H5N1 was the next pandemic, then we would be well-prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concern over \u2018hybrid\u2019 bird-human virus<\/p>\n

While the risk of transmission from humans to birds remains low, there is some concern that low vaccination rates could lead to a \u201chybrid\u201d virus.<\/p>\n

Swinburne microbiologist Professor Enzo Palombo said in its current strain it is unlikely that the strain could pass to humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bird flu detections in Western Australia are a clear reminder of the risk posed by animal viruses spreading to humans,\u201d Professor Palombo says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the risk of direct transmission of bird flu to people is low, the potential for the emergence of new viruses with capacity to spread between humans remains a real concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

He encouraged Australians to get vaccinated against the flu, which would help give a barrier of defence if the virus were to mutate.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo minimise the risk, people are encouraged to get a flu vaccine,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis not only reduces the risk from current circulating flu strains, it also minimises the possibility of the emergence of \u2018hybrid\u2019 bird-human viruses which could evolve into novel viruses with high pandemic potential.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The H5N1 bird flu has landed in Australia, and it could send grocery bills soaring if or when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-754016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}