April 16, 2013

 

Guangdong, China, sees declining prices due to bird flu outbreak

 

 

Poultry businesses in Guangdong, China, have been adversely affected by the H7N9 bird flu outbreak in the eastern and northern parts of the country, over the past weeks.

 

Prices for chickens, ducks, geese, doves, quail and other domestic poultry have plummeted in many cities in the southern province that is known for its boiled sliced chicken and other chicken dishes.

 

In Foshan, about 20 kilometres from Guangzhou, the provincial capital, prices for live poultry have fallen by about 50% since April 7.

 

"Despite the lower prices, few poultry traders want to buy poultry in the city's wholesale markets due to slow sales in local agricultural markets," said a senior executive from Fuzhuang Chicken Farm in Foshan.

 

Meanwhile, around 80,000 newborn chickens have to be destroyed a day because of the slow sales, he added.

 

At Guijiang Poultry Wholesale Market in Dali township, the largest such market in Foshan, fewer than 100,000 birds were sold on April 13, Saturday, compared with more than 150,000 daily in the first quarter of the year.

 

At Guangzhou's Taojin agricultural market, a poultry trader said sales at her booth fell by at least 10% since Tomb Sweeping Day on April 4.

 

At the Beilaide pigeon farm in Zhaoqing, more than 120,000 pigeons have been slaughtered due to slow sales in the past week.

 

In Guangzhou, workers from the bureau of animal sanitation buried 38 live and 12 dead chicks in the city's Huadu district last week.

 

City personnel quickly arrived on the scene when residents reported that the chicks and bodies were found dumped in the district's Gongye'erlu area of the Furong Industrial Zone.

 

Peng Cong, director of Guangzhou office of animal sanitation, said that it was unknown whether the chicks carried H7N9 virus as the testing has not been completed.

 

According to the Guangdong Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, no H7N9 cases or other unknown cases of pneumonia have been reported in the province.

 

None of the 542 workers in Guangdong's poultry industry, who were asked to take a sample test for H7N9 virus between April 1 and 12, were diagnosed as having H7N9 bird flu virus.

 

Only a pregnant woman was detected to have contracted the H1N1 bird flu in Guangzhou's Huadu district in the past week.