Life is busy for chicken doctors

bangalore: once you specialise in poultry there''s no chickening out. godrej real good chicken, the only player in bangalore that specialises in packed and processed whole broiler chickens, has its own band of `chicken doctors''. poultry supervisors as they are officially called, have to do a lot of hard work. and if the chicken curry on your table tastes great, they''re largely responsible for it.there is one supervisor per lakh of birds and real good has 104 farms in and around bangalore. right from travelling 150 km everyday visiting several farms to ensuring a healthy chicken, these supervisors have a busy day. but what is unusual is that they''re not qualified veterinarians. "but once we recruit these young chaps, we put them into our training unit where they are taught the nitty gritty of poultry supervision. only then they are sent on field", says rajeev s murthy, branch manager, godrej agrovet ltd. wherever they go, they are fondly called `chicken doctors'' or ''junior doctors'' by affectionate farmers and localites. twenty five-year-old sendil kumar is doing his ba through correspondence. he is also godrej''s poultry supervisor for the last four years. "i handle farms around tumkur road and my day begins at 6.30 am. it feels good to see the birds and work with them. everyday is a new experience. this job has great scope in bangalore," he says. another supervisor pradeep alva actually holds a conversation with his chickens. "i''ve to check the activities of the birds. over a period of time, i have built a relationship with them. i ask them how they''re doing and talk to them about myself," he says. while he has been with real good for six years now, there are others who are still freshers. yet everyone has to travel a minimum of 150 km and work on farms everyday. they travel by a company vehicle and have a pager each so that the farmer can get in touch with them urgently. and urgent business would include a chicken becoming very slow and inactive, or not eating properly or sometimes even dying. the death of a chicken is a huge crisis for these `chicken doctors''. "they have to immediately inform our qualified veterinarians who reach the crisis spot immediately and do a post mortem on the bird to figure out the problem," says dr.rajendra head veterinarian. on a weekly basis, the supervisors follow a strict format. they have to take down daily notes on every bird lot and fill up the weekly form on the weight, feed, farm management, vaccine and stock details. the diseases they have to beware of are respiratory and slow growth problems that could spoil the chicken''s health. while live chicken sellers also have their farms and supervisors, real good''s packed whole chicken plays a different ball game. "integration in poultry has come into the market in a big way. godrej has become a one stop shop of sorts. we have our own leased out farms, the farmers are rearing only for us, we manufacture our own feed, give our own medicines and vaccines and have our own supervisors. in effect, the bird is ours, the farmer is ours and the shed, electricity and infrastructure is also given by us," says murthy. according to him, bangalore is a huge poultry belt because of the integrated business leading to other cities. and in case any chicken is not up to the mark, it is sent to the live chicken market. poultry supervision gets a lot of attention here. after formal walk-in interviews, the recruits are made to train in farm management, sheds and equipment, administering feeds and how to handle diseases. there are farmer meets on a regular basis for two way interaction on problems and successes. there are 5.5 lakh packed whole chickens being sold in bangalore per month but the concept of packed chicken still has a long way to go since only seven percent of bangalore actually buys this variety. yet, at real good, there''s much fuss towards ensuring a fat, healthy, popular and hygienic chicken that ultimately pampers our taste buds.