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.

The country’s first case of an avian influenza or bird flu has been identified on a commerical rural Otago egg farm. The Ministry for Primary Industries says the H7N6 strain is thought to have infected the farm - after laying hens foraging outside the shed were exposed to a low pathogenic virus from wild waterfowl.