New Zealand said on Monday that it had suspended all poultry exports after detecting a highly pathogenic variant of avian influenza at a poultry farm on the South Island. Tests confirmed the H7N6 subtype of bird flu at a rural chicken farm in the Otago region,

To try to prevent the further spread of the virus, around 80,000 layer hens across two sheds will be humanely culled using CO2 gas.

WELLINGTON: New Zealand has placed strict movement controls on a commercial egg farm in the southern region of Otago after testing confirmed its chickens are infected with bird flu, but said it is not the strain causing concern globally.