Bird flu may be looming, but Australia’s egg farmers have a simple ask – keep calm and crack on. With H5N1 nearing Australia’s poultry industry, free-range producers are doubling down on biosecurity and, at the same time, reassuring consumers that eggs remain safe to consume. For Catriona Byrne, who co-founded free-range egg producer Feather and Peck, that message has become crucial to independent farmers as concern over H5N1 grows. My key message is that eggs are safe,” she told Inside
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Bird flu may be looming, but Australia’s egg farmers have a simple ask – keep calm and crack on. With H5N1 nearing Australia’s poultry industry, free-range producers are doubling down on biosecurity and, at the same time, reassuring consumers that eggs remain safe to consume. For Catriona Byrne, who co-founded free-range egg producer Feather and Peck, that message has become crucial to independent farmers as concern over H5N1 grows. My key message is that eggs are safe,” she told Inside FMCG. “The best thing you can do to support farmers and producers is to continue buying eggs.”Elevated vigilance The first encounter of H5N1 in Australia happened in May, when a dead migratory seabird was found on a beach in Western Australia – the first time this strain had been detected in Australian wildlife. The observation carries substantial resonance as H5N1 avian influenza threatens Australia’s commercial poultry industry. While Australia remains free of H5N1 outbreaks in any poultry farms, the discovery of infected migratory seabirds has pushed governments and producers alike to elevate their vigilance. Free-range eggs account for around 60 per cent of Australia’s egg market, meaning even a small interruption would ripple well beyond farm gates and into supermarket aisles.In Australia, preparedness has assumed an essential role, and every procedure forms part of an elaborate choreography designed to keep disease outside the farm gate. “Bird flu is always a threat,” Byrne said. “When cases are reported, it naturally heightens awareness and increases our need for vigilance. The biosecurity measures we have in place protect the birds, but because of the highly infectious nature of avian flu, we do take extra precautions with vehicle and equipment sanitisation, which adds to the cost of production.” Across the sector, those precautions have become far more visible. Just last month, one of Australia’s largest producers of poultry and fodder, Inghams, placed all of its Western Australian poultry operations into lockdown, restricting non-essential access while seeking approval to house free-range birds indoors temporarily.It isn’t the first time Australia has encountered avian influenza. In 2024, outbreaks of the H7 virus infected 16 poultry farms across Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT. Two million chickens were affected before the disease was eradicated through culling, intensive testing and movement controls. H5N1, however, follows a far more diverse ecological trajectory, established within wild bird populations spanning the world, and it has become entwined with migratory pathways that acknowledge neither coastlines nor borders. Undersupply and purchase limitsIf there is one unchanging truth about eggs, it is that biology will rarely accommodate commerce. Hens lay according to their own cadence, leaving producers with no capacity to demand additional supply because supermarket shelves happen to empty. Byrne understands this all too well. “It can be very stressful to have an undersupply for our regular customers. Likewise, it’s stressful when there is oversupply, which puts price pressure on us and creates waste in unsold eggs,” she said. “We pay our farmers every week for every saleable egg, whether we can sell them or not. It’s a juggle.” During the 2024 H7 outbreak, Coles and Woolworths implemented purchase limits after millions of birds were culled. Non-profit organisation Australian Eggs urged shoppers not to mistake patchy shelves for a nationwide shortage, reminding them that more than 18 million eggs were still being produced every day. Those memories inevitably return whenever bird flu reappears in the headlines, although Byrne believes that egg farmers who are confident deserve attention as well. For now, Australia’s poultry industry continues to watch the horizon with measured optimism. Authorities maintain there have been no commercial H5N1 outbreaks and the risk to human health remains low, even as surveillance of migratory birds heightens. Byrne, speaking on behalf of all small poultry businesses, wants consumers to remember that the simplest way to support the industry’s resilience is in their daily shopping. “Buying local, low-density free-range or pasture-raised eggs supports local farmers. If [consumers] want to continue having choice, we need to support local producers.”
