WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT IS CONTAINED IN THIS ARTICLE

An investigation has been launched into the animal cruelty exposed by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, at the Victorian Bridgewater Poultry Farm which until March had supplied Coles and Woolworths.

And the scandal has forced Tony Nesci, one of the owners of the farm involved, to step down as the VFF Egg Group's boss, after he said he "took offence" at questions that he was responsible and tried to shift the blame to contractors he was unable to identify.

The footage was secretly filmed by a whistleblower in April and May after the farm had been placed into quarantine over a salmonella outbreak which sparked a major recall in March.