The Hindu Business Line : ‘Govt should protect poultry economy’

Coimbatore, Jan. 18 The poultry sector in the South, worried about its fortunes over the likely fallout of the bird flu flare-ups, has renewed its appeal to the Centre to immediately start zoning or compartmentalising poultry regions to protect their economy.

The South-based poultry industry also traced the current bird flu outbreaks in West Bengal to the birds supplied by the Government hatcheries which, it said, accounted for less than two per cent of chick population in the country. The birds that have been affected in West Bengal, as in the case of last year’s bird flu incidents reported in Imphal, were supplied by the Government hatchery and were involved only in isolated backyard poultry pockets, the southern poultry industry sources said.

Private hatcheries worry

According to them, while 98 per cent of the day-old chicks produced in the country are from the organised private sector, the repeated incidences of bird flu in those supplied by Government hatcheries is a matter of concern for the poultry population under the organised private sector that provides employment to 3.2 million rural people, contributing around Rs 36000 crore to the nation’s economy.

The Centre should expedite the process of creating separate zones/compartments as per the guidelines of OIE (Office International des Epizooties or World Organisation of Animal Health) and inform countries importing poultry products so that exports from the unaffected zones would go through without any problem, the Apex Poultry Producers body of the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) said.