Orissa poultry hit by flu scare

Even though there is no symptom of bird flu in Orissa, the poultry market in the state has been badly affected due to the scare of avian influenza which has broken out in neighboring West Bengal.

With the people in the state avoiding chicken and egg products their prices have fallen drastically. The price of egg fell from Rs 1.92 per piece about a week ago to Rs 1.20 in Berhampur market.

Similarly the chicken price fell from Rs 90 to Rs 80 per kg (dressed) and Rs 48 to Rs 40 per kg (live birds) during the period. If the bird flu scare continues for some more days, the poultry owners would end up with huge losses, said SS Tripathy, the vice president of the National Egg Coordination Committee, an organisation of the poultry farm owners.

While there are about 40 poultry farms producing eggs in the state, almost 50 percent of them are located in Ganjam district. Ganjam district alone produced about 20 lakh eggs per day compared to entire state's production of 34 lakh per day.

Orissa is not self sufficient in egg production. While the state requires about 64 lakh eggs per day, the farmers here supply about 34 lakh eggs with the remaining 25 lakhs being imported, mostly from Andhra Pradesh. Only for the Mid Day Meal programme, the state requires about 14 lakhs eggs per day.

The state government has accorded poultry agriculture status and encourages the entrepreneurs to set up the farms by providing several incentives. The government aimed to increase egg production to one core per day by 2010-11.

The fall in the prices of egg and chicken is basically due to their non consumption and impose of ban by the West Bengal government on import of eggs and chicken from outside the state, said Madan Mohan Panigrahi, a poultry farm owner in Ganjam.

The prices of eggs are likely to increase in the day or two day as the West Bengal government has lifted the ban on import from outside the state, he hoped.

The poultry owners, however, urged the government to create awareness to counter the false propaganda about bird flu and save the farm owners from incurring huge loss. The bird flu scare had hit the poultry farmers in the state in 2004 and 2006, when the deadly disease spread in other areas of the country.

While the farm owners are trying to recover the loss sustained in the previous years, the current outbreak of the disease in West Bengal has once again ruined their business, said a retail egg merchant in Koraput.

The state government however said they were creating awareness among the people not to be panicked as the disease is yet to spread to the state. The government has already taken several precautionary steps.

Apprehending the spread of bird blue from West Bengal, Orissa has banned poultry imports from that state. The administrations of the districts bordering West Bengal like Balasore, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar have been instructed to remain alert.

"The state government has alerted all district collectors following the outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal", Orissa Animal Husbandry Minister Golak Nayak said.

Besides, a team of the veterinary doctors and forest officials have been instructed to visit the farms and detect any irregularities. The minister said, the state has decided to procure the eggs needed for the mid-day meal scheme locally.

The fisheries and animal resources department has asked the district collectors to procure eggs meant for Mida Day Meal programme locally, he added.

According the prevailing rules, the districts covered under this programme appoints agents who procure the input materials such as dal and egg which is mostly met from Andhra Pradesh and other neighbouring states.

Meanwhile, Chilika Divisional Forest Office has sent the blood samples of the 22 migratory birds who were found dead in the Chilika lake to Bhopal based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) for testing.

The report is expected soon. It may be noted, migratory birds from as far away as the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, Siberia, the steppes of Mongolia, Central and Southeastern Asia, Ladakh and the Himalayas flock to Chilika lake in Khurda district, Hirakud dam in Sambalpur district, the Nandankanan Biological Park and Bhitarkanika National Park in Kendrapada district every winter.