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The fire on Castle Hill, Canterbury continues to burn as it has since Thursday this week. Labour continues to press the governments policies as Franklin road prepares to re-open.
The Ministry for Primary Industries’ chief veterinary officer Dr Mary van Andel said today the bird flu detected was confined to the Mainland Poultry property in Hillgrove.
Five other Mainland Poultry properties have been checked and cleared, and monitoring and testing there would continue, van Andel said.
The number of chickens needing to be culled has doubled as bird flu was found in a third shed and suspected in a fourth. Photo / Ben Tomsett
Testing of a third chicken shed on the Hillgrove property has returned positive results for the virus, she said. Forty thousand chickens from this shed will be killed in the coming days, she said.
A fourth shed is still to be checked, van Andel said. She said the ministry believed it was “highly likely” chickens in this shed were infected, though, and the 40,000 chickens there will also be killed.
The total number of chooks euthanised from all four sheds will be 160,000, van Andel said.
“The farm remains under strict biosecurity lockdown,” she said.
“There have been no reports of sick poultry elsewhere in the country.
“[And] there remains no risk to eggs and chicken supply in New Zealand given the size of the national flock, nor any issues for food safety and human health.”
An unconnected farm near Dunedin also subject to testing for the high pathogenic bird influenza was confirmed to be free of the virus.
Mainland Poultry, which manages the free-range farm which confirmed NZ's first case of of high pathogenic avian influenza, otherwise known as bird flu. Photo / Ben Tomsett
Mainland Poultry chief executive John McKay told Radio New Zealand they were disposing of everything that came on and off the farm at a high-security landfill in Southland.
This includes manure, eggs, PPE equipment and the culled hens.
“It’s a pretty stressful time for our team,” McKay said.