- Author, Joao da Silva
- Role, Business reporter
Australian fans of a late breakfast at McDonald’s will now have to get up earlier.
The fast food giant has temporarily shortened the opening hours of its breakfast service in the country by 90 minutes due to an egg shortage caused by the bird flu outbreak.
Currently, the full breakfast menu is only served until 10:30am, instead of the usual lunchtime.
“Like many other retailers, we are carefully managing our egg supply due to the current challenges in the industry,” McDonald’s Australia said in a statement to the BBC.
“We continue to work closely with our network of Australian farmers, producers and suppliers as the industry comes together to meet this challenge.”
Over the past two months, several strains of bird flu have been identified in 11 poultry farms in southeastern Australia.
Authorities say they have the situation under control.
“Consumers can expect shelves to be empty in the short term, but stock is being moved to areas of shortage,” the Australian government said.
“Consumers should not buy more eggs than necessary.”
Bird flu has affected less than 10% of Australia’s laying hens, but some companies have imposed restrictions on the number of eggs people can buy.
The outbreaks have led to the culling of approximately 1.5 million chickens in Australia.
So far, none of the strains detected are the H5N1 variant of bird flu.
H5N1 is spreading worldwide among bird and mammal populations, infecting billions of animals and a small number of humans.