Telangana poultry body expects sales to recover fully this week

The sale of poultry products in Telangana, which was hit by incidence of bird flu at a farm here recently, “is now picking up and would see full recovery this week”, the state association of poultry breeders said today.

G Ranjith Reddy, president of the association, said consumers could soon expect an official statement from the government confirming it. The Telangana health department has placed under strict vigil the 10-km zone near the layer birds farm in Rangareddy district.

Concerned by recent developments, which saw culling of 160,000 layer birds by the animal husbandry department, consumers stayed away from buying chicken and related products in the last week.

This saw last week’s Sunday chicken sales across busy retail outlets dropping significantly, in some cases up to 80 per cent, as against the previous week. To allay public fears, the association is holding awareness programmes across the state.

The annual Rs 10,000-crore Telangana poultry industry produces 40 million kg chicken every month, while a considerable production of egg is exported to the neighbouring states.

KG Anand, chief executive of National Egg Coordination Committee, said none of the workers in the affected farm had tested positive according to the state health department.

On the compensation being offered to the farm owner due to the culling, Reddy said the loss had been estimated to be Rs 30 crore, and they were expecting Rs 15-18 crore compensation from the Centre and state governments.