Bird flu scare hits govt poultry farm sales

Sachchidanand Jha / TNN / Feb 23, 2006, 01:40 IST

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Patna-based central poultry farm has not been able to sell any chicken for last 4 days despite it being the marriage season.

Bird flu scare hits govt poultry farm sales

PATNA: With the bird flu scare gripping Bihar ever since its outbreak in Maharashtra, the Patna-based central poultry farm of the animal husbandry department (AHD) has not been able to sell any chicken for the last four days despite it being the marriage season.
A senior official of the farm told TOI on Wednesday that one person who had given an order for 100 kg of dressed chickens on Tuesday in connection with a marriage, did not turn up at the farm to collect them.
The general manager of the central poultry farm, Vishnudev Chaudhary, admitted that the farm had not sold any chicken for the last few days.
While conceding that one person who had ordered for 100 kg of dressed chickens, did not turn up to collect them, Chaudhary said another person has ordered for three quintals of dressed chickens for February 28. The farm sells dressed Chickens at the rate of Rs 62 per kg.

The farm sells eggs on Tuesdays and on other days only on demand. Chaudhary said on Tuesday the farm sold about 1,000 eggs. There was no demand for eggs on Wednesday. Chicken is sold daily.
Chaudhary, while claiming that no incident of bird flu had been reported till date from any poultry farm in the state, including private ones, said Khorshlin T had been sprayed at the central poultry farm here to disinfect its premises.

The central farm has got about 14,000 chickens of different sizes. Obviously, the lack of sale of chickens at the central poultry farm is affecting its revenue, he maintained.
Incidentally, two other poultry farms of the AHD at Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur have become defunct. Chaudhary said, "The Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur poultry farms have become non-functional." AHD sources said the two farms stopped
producing chickens and eggs several months back.
A central poultry farm official said the drastic fall in the sale of chickens and eggs has not created any disposal problem for the farm since it has adequate storage facility.
Chaudhary said the farm has an adequate number of freezers besides the cold storage facility to store unsold eggs.
Chaudhary claimed that much before the outbreak of bird flu in Maharashtra, the AHD had constituted teams in December last to monitor the health of chickens at various poultry farms across the state.
Meanwhile, the bird flu scare is causing trouble for people who do not like fish or mutton. A heart patient said he has been advised by doctors to take only fish or chicken. "I do not like fish and now due to the threat of bird flu I cannot take chicken either," he lamented.

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