One could be forgiven thinking the bird flu outbreak in Euroa earlier this year would have seen the Agricultural Show's bird and poultry competition hit hard, but it was quite the opposite.
Despite a significant outbreak of the virus in a local egg producing farm in February, which saw the region put into a bird 'lockdown', breeders and fanciers took advantage of the stay-at-home status of their fowl.
They let them do their 'thing': there were more birds to enter.
"Entry numbers were up by about 20 compared to last year," said the bird pavilion's steward Michael Holmes.
"People bred more birds, because they were sitting at home doing nothing, so the flu actually helped the breeding programs.
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"And you can see how many people here are walking up the aisles - it's full and that's great to see."
Mr Holmes said increased entry numbers were also due to the next generation of fanciers coming through.
"There is more than just those supporting agricultural shows, but the kids are entering too now, and there were a lot of other novices here as well, so that's good.
"Some people who once got out of poultry breeding have also decided to come back into it."
Mr Holmes said the clean bill of health given to Euroa by AgVic in which there were no other cases showed that breeders had all done the right thing.
"Everyone was vigilant, and all our birds are housed so they are not out in the open."
Mr Holmes said his father bred the White Peking which one Champion Bird, while Mr Holmes specialises in Mallard ducks and bantam Leghorn chickens.
