February 21, 2006

India sees drastic falls in poultry sales

Prices of chicken fell 10 percent on Sunday and retail sales were halved in the Indian city of Mumbai, following reports of the avian flu in the Indian state Maharashtra.

Mehmood Khan, proprietor of Royal Chicken Centre at Dadar, the biggest trader in Mumbai, said sales were at 40 percent of their normal levels. Five trucks of chickens were returned with just 70 chickens sold, Khan said. 

Other chicken traders also reported sales which nose-dived over the weekend. While retail sales have fallen, supply to hotels and caterers have remained stable.

Chicken traders complained that the administration should have given advance warning before they stocked up for Sunday.

Meanwhile, India's neighbours in South Asia have announced bans on Indian poultry imports. The countries include Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan. Sri Lanka also banned feathers and skin used in the making of sofas, jackets and belts

Pakistan has not reported a case of bird flu in the past two years. However, in 2003, between three million and four million chickens were culled after an outbreak of the H7N3 strain of bird flu.

The first outbreak in India was confirmed late on Saturday, when officials in Nandurbar district of western Maharashtra said that around 50,000 chicken had died in the past seven days. Indian health officials have begun culling hundreds of thousands of poultry animals in the state. An estimated half a million birds are located in and around the area and officials hope to finish culling in a week. Culling is proceeding at a slow pace since workers were inexperienced in carrying out such tasks.

Local tests confirmed that some samples tested positive for H5N1, but they were nevertheless sent over to the capital Mumbai (Bombay) for confirmatory tests.

Some scientists are saying that the birds died due to the Newcastle or the Ranikhet virus and not because of bird flu. Birds affected by the Newcastle virus also display the same symptoms as that of avian influenza.

Bird flu virus has so far been detected in 171 humans in Asia since 2003. Out of these 93 people have succumbed to the disease.