July 30, 2007

India's poultry industry wants to be divided into specific poultry zones

India's agricultural ministry is studying a proposal to create special poultry zones so that the industry as a whole does not suffer when bird flu breaks out in one area.

The government should divide the country into specific poultry farming zones, said Shabbir Ahmed Khan, secretary of the Poultry Federation of India, who proposed the change.

Help should be extended to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar and China to control bird flu so that it would not be spread to India.

Poultry production should be divided in a similar way to buffalo meat exports. This is so that if one zone is affected, the rest of the country is still considered free from bird flu, he said.

Last year the presence of H5N1 strain was confirmed twice in western India. The latest outbreak occurred in the northwest Indian state of Manipur.