THE Shire of Gingin is home to a number of poultry farms including Inghams whose chicken breeder farms and grower network are located primarily in the Gingin, Muchea and Mogumber areas.
The first Australian case of the highly infectious H5 bird flu variant was confirmed on June 20 after a sick brown skua was found in the remote Cape Le Grand area, east of Esperance, which is a long way from Gingin.
But in an Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) release yesterday morning Inghams said while there had been no detection in commercial poultry as a precaution it had moved to a state of heightened biosecurity vigilance to mitigate against any potential risks.
In the statement Inghams company secretary Marta Kielich said it included the implementation of a complete lock-down, preventing all non-essential access, across all the company’s WA farms and processing operations.
“These measures are in addition to the already strict standard protocols observed at all times across Inghams’ operations,’’ she said.
Some other operators with farms in Western Australia include AAA Egg Company and CF Farms (formerly Snowdale Holdings).
AAA Egg Company has egg farms in the Shire of Gingin (Neergabby and Muckenburra), Shire of Chittering (Muchea) and City of Swan (Bullsbrook) and Golden Eggs (in High Wycombe in the City of Kalamunda).
CF Farms (formerly Snowdale Holdings) owns two parcels of land in Beermullah, in the Shire of Gingin, on which commercial egg farming operations are conducted.
It also has a poultry farm and egg processing facility in Bennett Springs in the City of Swan.
Australia has been preparing for the unwanted but expected arrival of H5 bird flu with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) and other government departments telling commercial poultry producers and workers for some time that they must use effective on-farm biosecurity and hygiene measures to protect their birds and themselves from disease.
In Preparing for highly contagious H5 bird flu while organising a free biosecurity workshop in Bullsbrook in September last year for pasture-based poultry producers the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) said the avian influenza risk to poultry from close contact with wild birds was well recognised.
A DPIRD spokeswoman said good biosecurity practices were essential to reduce the risk significantly.
“The WA poultry industry implements biosecurity measures to reduce the likelihood of the avian influenza virus being introduced to poultry properties,’’ she said.
“This includes segregating commercial and domesticated birds from wild birds, sanitising water and practicing good disinfection onto and off the property.’’
At the time she said DPIRD continued to engage with producers to increase awareness of clinical signs of avian influenza to aid early detection and rapid response.
“These workshops will assist pastured-based poultry producers to develop a plan to implement processes, specific to their farm, to improve biosecurity.’’
Deputy chief veterinary officer Dr Marion Seymour said at the end of the workshop, pasture-based poultry owners would have the first draft of a biosecurity plan tailored to their property, a suite of biosecurity information and a farm biosecurity gate sign to take home.
