March 13, 2006

Sri Lanka's chicken sales fall 20 percent on bird flu fears

Sri Lankan poultry farmers are putting up posters and airing radio and television programmes to persuade reluctant consumers to eat chicken as sales slide amid fears of bird flu, an official said.

Chicken sales in Sri Lanka have dropped by 20 percent since last month, when bird flu was reported from neighbouring India, forcing hundreds of thousands of birds to be slaughtered.

Posters read, "Don't fear consuming chicken and eggs-100 percent local produce," in the country's three main languages Sinhala, Tamil and English.

"Our chicken products are free from bird flu as Sri Lanka banned imports of chicken meat or live birds nine months ago," said D.D. Wanasinghe, head of the Poultry Farmers Association.

The World Health Organization has said there is no risk of contracting bird flu from eating well-cooked chicken.

There have been no known cases of bird flu in the country, according to S.K.R. Amarasekara, the chief of the Animal Production and Health Department.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed or forced the culling of more than 140 million chickens and ducks across Asia since 2003, and has recently spread to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.