Special Report: 'Bird Flu Scare' Makes Huge Loss To Telangana And Andhra Pradesh Poultry Industry

The bird flu outbreak in Telangana has the Rs 20,000 crore turnover poultry industry in the two states of Andhra Pradesh and T running scared as it comes at a time when the sector has been bleeding due to adverse market conditions.

While the Telangana government's decision to initiate the process to cull around 1.45 lakh birds in Ranga Reddy district will strike an immediate Rs 30 crore blow to the industry, poultry players are worried that the bird flu alert will scare consumers off poultry products for at least 7-10 days, resulting in further losses for the industry on which lakhs of farmers are dependent in the two states.

“The immediate impact of culling 1.45 lakh birds will be Rs 30 crore, of which Rs 18 crore will be compensated by the state government,“ said Telangana Poultry Breeders' Association (TPBA) president Ranjit Reddy, pointing out that the industry's woes do not end there.

“The industry expects to face some pricing pressure on poultry products as demand will continue to be low over the next few days, resulting in a drop in prices. It's a bad situ ation as industry has already been suffering from huge losses over the past two and a half years due to a 50% rise in the cost of bird feed while the prices of poultry products have remained stagnant,“ said National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) business manager Sanjeev Chintawar, pointing out that consumers will be reluctant to buy poultry products coming from Telangana and AP , affecting the industry in both the states.

Feed prices play a crucial role in determining the health of the poultry industry as feed costs constitute near ly 75% of the total input cost. Over the last two years, the poultry industry has been incurring an average loss of Rs 50-75 per bird per annum.

According to Reddy of TPBA, poultry farms in Telangana produce 4 crore layer chicken per year, 2 crore broiler chicken per month and 3.2 crore eggs per day . He pointed out that while most of the broiler produced in the two states is consumed locally, nearly 40-50% of the layer chicken produced in AP and T are exported to states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, among others.

On the other hand, an official of the Andhra Pradesh animal husbandry department said that organised poultry farms produce 5 crore layer chicken and 20-22 crore broiler chicken per annum while the small poultry farmers produce 1.75 crore chicken, with 36 lakh farmer families dependent on the AP poultry sector as compared to 25 lakh farmer families in Telangana.

While five districts of East and West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Chittoor account for almost 70-80% of poultry products in AP, Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy district contribute more than 50% of Telangana's poultry output.

While at the moment, the outbreak has been reported only in Telangana, farmers in AP too are worried. B Bal ram, a representative of the poultry farmers association of West Godavari, expressed fears that the bird flu alert in Telangana will definitely have a ripple effect in AP. “Poultry prices will surely drop due to this scare irrespective of where the produce comes from.Farmers from AP too will have to bear the brunt of this outbreak. The government should ensure that farmers receive adequate compensation for their loss,“ he said.

As the poultry industry gears up to battle the latest challenge, the AP animal husbandry department has already deputed three-member teams near RTA check-posts along the APTelangana border to prevent birds from Telangana being transported to AP towns such as Kurnool, Vijayawada and Guntur.

“Some of the T poultry farmers may try to ship their stock to AP to get a better price because of the bird flu alert so we have put up teams at major check posts to monitor the inflow of poultry products round-the-clock and prevent bird flu from spreading to AP,“ said a senior AP animal husbandry department official.

Meanwhile, TPBA is already planning to come up with a campaign to convince chicken and egg lovers that poultry products available in the market are absolutely safe for consumption as in India most of the poultry products are not consumed raw but cooked, which kills the virus.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Avian influenza (AI), commonly called bird flu, is an infectious viral disease affecting birds. While most avian influenza viruses do not infect humans, some such as A(H5N1) and A(H7N9) can cause serious infections in people. In 2015 alone, 125 cases of H5N1 infection causing 33 deaths worldwide have been reported by WHO.