Australia's largest poultry producer has plunged farms into lockdown after a deadly avian flu strain was discovered in the country.
The H5N1 variant of the virus was confirmed in a sick brown skua found on a remote beach near Esperance in Western Australia, about 700km southeast of Perth.
A second migratory bird, a giant petrel, has returned a preliminary positive result but further investigation is needed, while more than a dozen cases of sick or dead birds have been also been reported.
Inghams Group announced on Monday that despite no detections in commercial poultry, it had made a decision to mitigate against any potential risks across all their WA sites.
"This includes the implementation of a complete lock-down, preventing all non-essential access, across all the company's WA farms and processing operations," the statement said.
