The recent confirmation of bird flu cases in Mysuru has dealt a further blow to the poultry industry,which was already reeling under the impact of the COVID-19 scare.
While chicken stalls in Mysuru remained closed for the third day on Thursday after bird flu cases were reported from Kumbarkoppal, the price of eggs available at retail stores had plummeted to ₹3.20 per egg.
Poultry farmers are staring at bleak future, said Satish Babu, the Mysuru coordinator of National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC). Many are even considering the option of giving up poultry farming for good, he said.
The industry had already received a huge a blow from the false news and rumours spread on social media platforms linking consumption of chicken to COVID-19.
Though the government authorities including officials from the Department of Animal Husbandry clarified that there was no connection between chicken consumption and the virus, the price of chicken fell dramatically from ₹160 per kg to ₹80 to 90 a kg. The poultry farmers were unable to recover the cost they had incurred on rearing the broilers and were forced to sell them at an abysmal price.
When the bird flu cases were confirmed, the authorities not only culled more than 5,000 birds on Tuesday and Wednesday, but also closed all shops selling poultry products in a radius of 10 kms from Kumbarakoppal, which was the epicenter of the bird flu.
Though Mr. Babu is hopeful that the stalls will be permitted to be reopened after two days, sources in the Animal Husbandry Department were of the opinion that permission to open the stalls will be given only after the results of random samples collected from the region show negative results.
The poultry industry representatives met Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar in Mysuru on Wednesday and sought permission for early reopening of the stalls.
While the poultry farmers claimed they are finding no takers for their broilers even if they wished to give them free, the stock of eggs was only increasing.
“There is a stock of 30 to 40 lakh eggs in Mysuru alone. In addition to meeting the demand for eggs in Mysuru, the poultry farmers used to supply about 12 lakh eggs per day to different parts of Kerala. But, we are neither able to sell eggs in Mysuru nor sell them in Kerala”, Mr. Babu bemoaned.
“This is the worst situation poultry industry had ever faced”, he regretted before adding that the 50 poultry farms in Mysuru were incurring a collective loss of more than ₹ 1.25 crore per day from the last one month.
Mr. Babu said they saw a silver lining among the dark clouds when Kerala State Animal Husbandry Department officials responded positively to their request to lift the ban on sale of eggs in Mallapuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad following bird flu cases. “They have assured appropriate action at the earliest to allow eggs from Mysuru with a certificate from authorities”, he said.
