October 31, 2005

China's poultry sales tumble due to bird flu fears
 

Poultry sales in Beijing and Shanghai have plummeted by up to 80 percent amid rising public anxiety after three bird flu outbreaks among Chinese flocks, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The government has tried to reassure citizens that it can stop the disease. China has reported no human cases, but health officials warned Friday that one is inevitable unless China prevents future outbreaks in birds.

At the Guantang market, the biggest wholesale poultry market in Shanghai, the country's biggest city, sales have fallen by 80 percent, the China Daily newspaper said.

"The price for a home-raised chicken has halved to less than RMB10 (US$1.20) a kilogram," the market's general manager, Wang Baorong, was quoted as saying.

Health officials say the main cause of human infections is direct contact with poultry in slaughtering, butchering or cooking, or surfaces contaminated by their droppings.

There is no evidence that properly cooked chicken or eggs can sicken people.

Xu Min, a merchant at Beijing's Wanziju market who used to sell 150 birds a day, said she has had to cut her purchases of birds from suppliers by more than half, according to the China Daily.

"My income has been cut in half since the bird flu panic started," she was quoted as saying.

Chinese authorities reported a bird flu outbreak last week among chickens and ducks at a breeding facility in the northern region of Inner Mongolia. Outbreaks were reported later in the eastern province of Anhui and Hunan in central China.