Bird flu deals a Rs 670-cr blow to NE poultry sector

GUWAHATI/SILIGURI: The outbreak of bird flu in Manipur has hit the poultry sector in the North East. The market size of the poultry sector in the region is around Rs 1,000 crore. The sector has suffered a loss of around Rs 670 crore due to the outbreak of avian influenza. In step, the bird flu outbreak in Manipur has already started casting its dark shadows over the poultry feed manufacturing sector in North Bengal that supplies the lion’s share of the feed to the northeastern farms.

With the ban imposed on the inter-state boundaries on the movement of poultry products, supply of chickens to Manipur and Nagaland has come to a halt. Manipur imports chickens from Assam. Nearly 17 hatcheries in and around Guwahati have downed their shutters. According to an assessment by the Northeastern Poultry and Egg Federation (Nepef), Guwahati alone consumes 26,000 kg of meat daily.

Nepef president JK Talukdar told ET: “The total turnover of the sector has come down by at least 67% in the last one week. As the governments of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland have imposed a ban on purchase of poultry, there is hardly any movement of the poultry products within the region.”

Meanwhile, operations to control and contain the spread of the disease continued in and around the infected site in Manipur. Nearly 47,294 birds (43,176 chickens and 4,118 ducks) were culled and disposed of on July 30.

Sources said other infected materials such as eggs (1,755) and feed/feed materials (2,105 kg) were also disposed of. In all 1,85,231 birds have been killed in operations till Monday. Culling and disposal activities will cover all 86 sectors within 5 km of the disease hit zone, which will be followed by disinfecting functions.

There is no report of any unusual deaths from east and west Imphal districts of Manipur or the country as a whole. Mr Talukdar said supplies of disinfectants and other materials required to control and contain the disease have been rushed by the Centre to accelerate efforts to stamp out the disease.

The central government has issued an advisory to northeastern states to refrain from imposing any restriction on inter-state movement of poultry and poultry products and intensify surveillance of the borders with countries that have reported outbreak of avian influenza.