“So far, people were not buying chicken because of Coronavirus. Now, since bird flu has also come up, we will have to shut down our poultry farm altogether,” said Harish Pal, a poultry farm operator, over the phone.

He is doing poultry business in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh where began a sudden outbreak of the bird flu among the chickens on March 15. After the confirmation of the same upon the investigation, the sale of chicken and eggs was banned by the authorities.

The poultry industry was already incurring losses due to the scare of catching Coronavirus from chicken and eggs. But, with the recent outbreak of bird flu, the sector will nosedive into losses.

Dr Ashok Singh Tomar, joint director, Department of Animal Husbandry, Gwalior division of Madhya Pradesh, informed: “We got the information that chickens with several shopkeepers in the Bhind have died, so we went there and destroyed the chickens. The investigations revealed that the birds had perished due to bird flu.”

He added: “Since the shopkeepers are still absconding, it could not be ascertained where they procured the chickens from, because besides Madhya Pradesh, there are chickens supplied from other states as well. Now it will be known only after the investigation.”

In the past few days, bird flu has also killed chickens in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts of Kerala, about 2,210 kms away from Bhind in Madhya Pradesh.

Rahul Rajeev, who runs a poultry farm in Kozhikode, informed over the phone: “Ever since rumours about the Coronavirus have started doing the round, a lot of people have closed down their farms, but now the bird flu will not let a single farm run. I had to sell chickens at a throwaway price. Now there are a thousand left. They will also have to be killed.”

In Kozhikode and Malappuram, where bird flu cases have been found, all poultry farms within a radius of ten kms have been sealed and chickens have been killed.

Dr Haroon Rashid, Assistant Director, Department of Animal Husbandry, Kerala, informed: “Bird flu is a very dangerous disease. It takes no time at all for this disease to spread to humans from the chickens, so people are forbidden to eat egg and chicken and also the birds are destroyed.”

In a recent letter to the Finance Ministry, Bahadur Ali, the President of the All India Poultry Breeders’ Association, stated that the poultry industry, including broiler farmers, feed-making and hatching companies, had incurred a loss of Rs 1,750 between mid-January and mid-February. “The industry produces about 35 crore broilers every month. If these conditions persist in March, there may be an additional loss of about Rs 1,750 crores per month.”

According to the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal husbandry and Dairying, more than 10 crore farmers are directly involved in poultry farming. The poultry sector produces 25 crore eggs and 1.3 crore birds per day in the country and contributes over Rs 1.2 lakh crore to the GDP. Crores of people from Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh to Punjab-Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar are involved in this business.

Harish Pal, the poultry farm operator in Bhind, said: “Although there had been only two places which confirmed bird flu in our district, it does not take too long to catch. It can infect all birds, even if a single infected crow or bird comes to our farm, all the chickens will catch it.”

Every year when all the farms used to be closed, I continue to run the farm even during summer, there is more profit at that time. However, this time it had to be closed, that too, in February-March. It does not seem if anyone would run any poultry farm further,” Harish added.

In Madhya Pradesh, Devraj Singh, who runs a poultry farm of 50,000 broiler and desi breed of poultry in Jabalpur, is thinking of leaving the poultry business in the coming time. Devraj complained: “There is nothing but loss in poultry. Sometimes the feed becomes costlier, sometimes there is a disease. This time, there was a major damage.”

Several cases of bird flu have been found in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Kerala. In Bihar, several crows were found dead in Patna, when it was revealed after investigation that they had died due to bird flu.