Australia's national egg shortage

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(Supermarkets) across the country have announced restrictions on the number of eggs customers can purchase as the bird flu outbreak continues to wreak havoc. Coles confirmed people will be limited to just two cartons each per shop, starting from today as the retail giant experiences problems with supply.

The restriction is temporary but will be in place at all stores except Western Australia. For more, I am joined by infectious diseases expert, Professor Robert Booy. Good morning to you. Well, firstly, how serious is bird flu and should people be concerned by this recent outbreak?

Well, bird flu is caused by influenza AH5, it’s a virus which can spread between wild birds and poultry. But it is very unlikely to pass to humans. There is only a small handful of cases that have occurred, one in Australia. It requires heavy exposure, a lot of virus to be passed from a dead bird, for example, to a human.

Australia doesn’t need to worry. We got a very good surveillance system in our poultry flocks and we have early detection and what happens then is that there is a quarantine, and birds that are involved are culled and nearby ones are also culled. So we are in a good position in Australia. As well as we have good surveillance, our flocks are in remote areas, rural areas and we will get through this. So how concerning is it if it does get into the community?

Well, it’s not likely to get into the community, that’s the first thing. This is a virus that spreads easily between birds but not between humans. Humans to humans transmission is most unlikely. Were that to happen, we would be much more concerned. But that’s not happening, it hasn’t happened. We’ve known about this virus for decades and it hasn’t happened apart from the occasional transfer to someone who’s heavily exposed.

So obviously a shortage in eggs means this is having some sort of effect on those birds. Could that continue and is it likely that this shortage will continue? Certainly, the culling of large numbers of birds does restrict supply but it’s also a very effective measure, and so given weeks no more than that, it’s likely that this will come under much better control, and transmission will be halted by those quarantine and other measures of culling the birds. Mmm.. so we’re trying to get ahead of it. Robert Booy, I appreciate your time. Thank you.