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.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus has now been confirmed in New Zealand. The presence of an H7N6 variant of HPAI, which was confirmed on December 1, is the country’s first instance of HPAI ever on record with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).