PHOTO SHOWS ALARMING REALITY AT MANY AUSSIE SUPERMARKETS RIGHT NOW
- Woolworths egg aisle almost barren
- Supply chain rattled by avian flu outbreaks
- READ MORE: How avian flu sparked a major change at McDonald's
An image of an empty supermarket fridge has exposed the shortage of eggs that stores say has been caused by bird flu hitting poultry farms.
A Melbourne man shared an image of empty shelves at a local Woolworths store, despite restrictions on purchases which were meant to prevent exactly that type of shortage.
'They're slaughtering all the chickens. NO EGGS,' he wrote.
It comes as the bird flu outbreak continues to spread, with 11 farms across NSW, the ACT and Victoria impacted, resulting in more than one million chickens being killed.
Last week Woolworths introduced rationing for customers in NSW, ACT, and Victoria, and they were limited to two cartons as the outbreak stifled supplies.
Coles introduced a similar policy earlier in June.
McDonald's is also feeling the pinch, announcing this week its egg-heavy breakfast menu would be stopped at 10.30am instead of midday to limit use.
Australian Eggs boss Rowan McMonnies acknowledged some supply chain disruption would be experienced as a result of the mass culls.
But he said consumers who shop around will still be able to find eggs even if one store had temporarily run out.
'If you want eggs, you will get them,' Mr McMonnie said.
'You may not be able to get eggs every time you usually do, [but] there's still going to be a lot of eggs available over winter,' he told ABC Radio.
'We really are cautioning against any form of panic... there's no food safety issue in relation to these incidents. Eggs, chicken meat, duck meat are all safe to eat and consumers need have no concern in that regard.'
Experts say avian flu does not pose a risk to human health, but Mr McMonnies said culling poultry was the correct course of action due to the 'terrible' impact it has on the birds and the industry.
'The notion we could let it rip and let this go out of control is not right at all... these things need to be eradicated and stamped out, because they're very damaging,' he said.
The H7 strain of the bird flu virus that has been detected in Australia is not the H5N1 strain which has infected billions of animals globally and raised fears of transmission to humans.
