As the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza strain continues to spread across wild bird populations in every Australian state, the chief executive of Australia’s largest poultry producer Ingham’s has warned that an outbreak on one of the company’s commercial farms is no longer a matter of if, but when.
Speaking alongside the release of Ingham’s full-year 2024-25 financial results on Friday, CEO Edward Alexander acknowledged that growing confirmed H5N1 detections in wild birds across the country makes introduction to domestic poultry inevitable. “Assume bird flu does hit, it’ll hit, obviously, one of our farms,” Alexander stated in his remarks, noting that within a two-kilometre radius of an infected site, containment operations would become challenging.
To mitigate the risk of large-scale spread, Alexander explained that Ingham’s operational model was intentionally designed with biosecurity as a core priority. The company spreads its farm locations, feed mills, processing facilities and distribution networks across the country, with geographic separation that acts as a natural barrier to transmission. In the event of an outbreak, rapid depopulation of infected flocks would be deployed to constrain the virus to a single site, and the company’s diversified footprint means that a single outbreak does not have to trigger nationwide supply disruption.
“That means an outbreak in one location does not automatically translate into disruption across our broad network,” Alexander said. “We have the ability to isolate affected areas, protect other parts of the network, and redirect production and supply.”
Ingham’s has also drawn critical lessons from the ongoing global H5N1 crisis that has killed millions of birds and marine mammals across the globe since the strain re-emerged in Europe in 2021. Data from the outbreak shows that more than 700 commercial poultry flocks across 23 European countries were infected in 2024, with 300 additional detections recorded in 16 nations so far this year. Alexander revealed that Ingham’s senior leadership has traveled to Europe to study firsthand responses to the outbreak, allowing the company to develop detailed, tested response protocols ahead of any domestic outbreak.
“This is a real and a significant risk for the poultry industry, as has been well documented in recent media. We take this risk extremely seriously and we are prepared for it,” Alexander said. “We know what we would do. We know how we would respond, and we know where the critical decisions ultimately need to be made.”
Beyond geographic separation and response planning, the company has invested heavily in prevention measures, ongoing wild bird and domestic surveillance, scenario planning and staff training to respond quickly to any detection. Right now, there are no recorded cases of H5N1 in Australian commercial poultry flocks, though state governments have already issued public warnings to beachgoers to avoid contact with sick or dead wild birds.
Alexander also addressed market concerns, noting that contrary to the European experience, where looser biosecurity standards for egg production led to plummeting consumer demand for eggs, there has been no measurable drop in consumer demand for chicken in Australia amid growing public awareness of the H5N1 risk. While an outbreak has not been formally factored into the company’s new financial year projections, Alexander said that unpredictable nature of the virus makes precise forecasting impossible.
“We can’t fully eliminate the risk, but we can control how well prepared we are for it,” he emphasized. “What I can say with confidence is that Ingham’s enters this period of time with the most resilient national network, well-developed biosecurity controls and a team that is prepared to act quickly and decisively if required.”
Alongside its preparedness updates, Ingham’s released full-year financial results that showed a steep 61% drop in net profit to AUD 34.6 million. The decline was driven by lower core earnings and an unexpected AUD 12.7 million addition to the company’s tax bill, related to disputed tax offsets claimed between 2019 and 2021. The company confirmed it will challenge the additional tax assessment and “intends to defend its position” per disclosures in its annual report.
Headquartered in Australia, Ingham’s operates its largest production networks in South Australia and Queensland, with smaller facilities in Western Australia and Victoria.