Bird flu scare fails to hit Andhra's chicken sale

VIJAYAWADA: As bird flu is making headlines across the country, with an alert raised in view of the H5N8 virus, meat shop owners in the city have stated that the sale of chicken has not been hit, yet. There is neither a drastic drop in demand for poultry products nor in the price. 

Shop owners have attributed the sales to the fact that there is no sign of avian influenza in Andhra Pradesh so far. “The price of chicken on Thursday was `194 and on Wednesday it was Rs 196 for one kg. We sold around 100 kg in the last five days and we have sold around 15 kg on Thursday. We can say that there is no reduction in demand, as of now,” Murali Krishna, a meat shop owner, said. Moreover, the demand and price of eggs have also remained constant. The price of each egg is Rs 6, for the past 10 days. 

Harimanohar, a vendor said, “Everyday, I sell around five to seven crates of eggs. The demand has not dipped so far and I am earning the same amount almost everyday. We have heard of the bird flu, however, we haven’t received any alert or guidelines from the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation or any officials yet.” 

However, the road ahead is not smooth. Meat shop owners are worried that the flu may spread, considering the State is visited by lakhs of migratory birds in this season every year. Another meat vendor, Mohammed Sheikh Abbas, said things are looking good as of now.

“There are chances that the flu may affect the poultry sector in the State. Bird flu has already hit Kerala and the virus spreading across the southern part of country is inevitable as interstate transport of poultry products has not been restricted yet. If this happens, the rates are sure to fall as demand will diminish as people will hesitate to consume meat,” he said. Meanwhile, officials of Animal Husbandry have stated that there is no need to panic as all measures are being taken to ensure that the State is not affected by bird flu.