April 11, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 22, 1428

KARACHI, April 10: Stakeholders in the poultry industry offer conflicting views regarding the expected impact on the broiler live bird sales after the detection of birdflu cases in Karachi farms in layer birds.

Some link the impact on the market to the consumers’ reaction to the news. They think that a shift in mood has a potential to push the industry towards deep financial crisis again.

Other industry leaders think that consumers have now become much aware and can differentiate between broilers and layers. As disease, in their view is limited to layer birds that are normally not sold in local market. They do not foresee any big impact on the industry’s health.

So far there has been no sentimental impact in consumers’ buying tendency after the detection of new cases of birdflu in Karachi and other parts of the country on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) on Tuesday increased the prices of poultry live broiler bird to Rs80 per kg from Rs76. However, prices of live layer birds had been intact at Rs32 per kg.

Currently, marriage season is at the peak and people are trying their best to serve many dishes in the wedding ceremonies in which chicken is the main item.

The poultry industry sales also heavily rely on restaurants and hotels. It is to be seen how white meat lovers react to birdflu news in coming days.

Meanwhile, a poultry farmer in Karachi recalled that the industry had suffered losses of Rs8-10 billion last year due to massive plunge in sales due to the outbreak of birdflu in some farms in Northern Areas in February 2006 followed by detection of the virus in poultry farms in Islamabad.

In 2006 crisis, he said the industry people had virtually stopped keeping day old chicks in their poultry farms. Many small and medium sized farmers had to switch to other businesses.

General Secretary Karachi Wholesale Poultry Association (KWPA) Kamal Akhtar Siddiqui tried to hide the facts by skipping real details about the farms that had been hit by birdflu cases in the city.

“I cannot tell the exact situation as to how many farms had been affected and how many layer birds have been culled in Karachi,” he said.

The government officials had taken blood samples from the poultry farms and after lab test they had detected the birdflu in various farms. The industry people did not have access to the official lab reports, he claimed.

He said that only layer birds had been affected by the H5N1 virus while broiler birds had so far been safe from any disease.

Chairman PPA Sindh Zone Chaudhry Mohammad Sohail told Dawn that there would be no negative impact on sales of broiler birds as the virus detected only in layers and over 47,000 birds had already been culled.

In the last two days there had been no downfall in sales of broiler birds. “I think the situation will remain under control as many consumers are aware of the birdflu mystery,” he added.

Chairman Press Publication Committee of PPA Abdul Maroof Siddiqui said that 47,500 layer birds had been culled at three farms in Poultry State in Karachi at Gadap Road in order to prevent spreading of the disease to other farms.

“I have not seen any depressing response from the consumers in terms of daily sales. But I cannot predict about any impact in the future,” he added.

Around two million broiler birds are slaughtered daily in the country out of which the share of Karachi is 400,000 birds a day. Around 10,000-15,000 layer birds are consumed in Karachi alone daily whose main buyers are low income group because of its very low price.

Convenor Disease Control Committee of PPA Dr Zafarul Islam Siddqui ruled out any negative impact on the sales of birds as he was of the view that people were now very much aware about birdflu cases.