A fire at New Zealand’s largest egg producer has killed about 50,000 hens, sparking fears that a national egg shortage could worsen.
The fire at a Zeagold farm broke out on Monday morning and had “taken better part of the day to contain”, a spokesperson for the company said. Twelve workers who were on site were “unharmed but very distressed”, the spokesperson said. Work was under way to assess how many hens had died, but Zeagold estimated it to be about 75,000. The company later revised that number down to 50,000.
