Australia Expects Free Range Chicken Shortage

SYDNEY - Feb 12/;04 - SNS -- Australian could face a near term shortage of free range chickens following the decision by some producers to move their birds indoors out of fear they will become infected with the strain of avian influenza sweeping through Asia.

Agriculture Minister Warren Truss indicated he believed the decision was unnecessary and strongly consumers they do not need to become worried about eating domestically produced chicken -- whether free-range, barn-raised or intensively farmed.

He stressed Australia remains free of avian influenza and does not import poultry, poultry meat or pet birds from countries with avian influenza.

Truss was commenting following the decision of some major suppliers of free-range poultry products, for biosecurity reasons, to move their free-range chickens into sheds as a temporary precaution.

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