Poultry in Punjab recovering as bird flu scare diminishes

Chandigarh, Apr 22 (UNI) The poultry farmers of Punjab, after facing heavy losses due to bird flu scare, have got a sigh of relief as the farm prices for eggs have now touched Rs 105 per 100 eggs in the state.

Recovering from as low as Rs 65 per 100 eggs, the poultry farmers in the state have begun to get the returns as the demand for the commodity was now gradually picking up, National Egg Coordination Committee's (NECC) northern region executive Ajit Singh told UNI here.

The retail price at the consumers end has moved up to Rs 18 per dozen, after it remained as low as Rs 12 per dozen for two days earlier this week, he said.

It was due to the non-movement of the egg stock at the poultry farms that the prices had fallen, he added.

The prices of eggs this summer would, however, remain between Rs 18 to 20 per dozen at the consumer end, as compared to Rs 24 before the bird flue scare enveloped the entire country.

Clarifying that the movement of eggs and chicken to Jammu and Kashmir was continuing, the NECC official pointed out that the import of cull birds only was banned in that state.

NECC's Ludhiana Committee vice chairman Inderjit Singh Kang, told UNI that the situation had improved as the losses were now being covered up due to the increasing movement of the eggs into the market for the last two days.

''Though our losses are covered up, it will take a few days to come back to the profit-making trade,'' said Mr Kang, who owned poultry at Kotla Shamashpur village, about 40 km from Chandigarh, in Ludhiana district.

Mr Kang was, however, concerned over the ban on import of cull birds in J and K. He said though J and K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had given an assurance to the Punjab poultry owners last month to lift ban on the import of the cull birds, nothing concrete has taken place so far.

He hailed the role played by NECC during the crisis following the bird flu scare. ''The NECC authorities played a very active role in the field, holding demonstrations to convince people to continue consuming chicken and eggs during the crisis,'' he said. It may be recalled that NECC Chairperson Anuradha Desai has already appealed to the J and K Government to lift the ban on entry of cull birds into the state, in interest of the farmers and the consumers.

As the entry has been stopped, the poultry farmers in Punjab and Haryana were forced to feed the layer birds, which have outlived their productivity and were also not able to replace the flocks with the new ones, Ms Desai had stated in a release on Thursday.

She has stated in a letter to the J and K Chief Minister that there has not been any report of birdflu in Punjab and Haryana and, thus, there was no reason to ban the entry of cull birds.

Ms Desai also said even as the other states had lifted the ban on entry of live birds on the advice of the Ministry of Agriculture, J and K was the only state which continued it and the movement of cull birds from Punjab and Haryana there had stopped completely.

Besides J and K, the eggs and chicken from Punjab are consumed in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and as far as Bihar.

UNI PS CH VC1635