KARACHI, Jan 14: A disease has hit the poultry farms in the provincial capital and its outskirts, causing deaths of 3.5 million to four million 'layer' birds in one-and-a-half months.

Poultry farm owners, however, are trying to underplay the avian influenza's negative impact on the consumers by saying that there is very little consumption of layer in the city as compared to broiler.

Consumers of layer birds are now hard pressed as the disease has snatched the cheap option from them since they cannot afford to buy broiler at Rs62 per kilogramme as compared to Rs36 per kilogramme for layer bird. Mutton at Rs180-200 per kg and boneless beef at Rs120-130 per kg are already out of the reach of most of the people.

Karachi Wholesale Poultry Association (KWPA) General Secretary Kamal Akhtar Siddiqui said the disease had played havoc with layers at the poultry farms in the city.

Asked whether eggs were safe for human consumption, he said a sizable quantity was arriving from Punjab to meet the demand. He said the intensity of disease, which had also hit the farms last year, had been quite high this year.

He said broilers were safe from any disease. A poultry scientist, Dr Jamil Ahmed, confirmed that 3.5 million to four million layers had perished due to the disease.

However, he said the consumption of layer was hardly 10 per cent as a majority of the consumers preferred broiler, which was safe from any disease. The convener, press and publication, Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA), Abdul Maroof Siddiqui, said around 3.5 million layer birds had died in two months due to avian influenza.

He said the city and its adjacent areas had 300 layer farms and 1,000 broiler farms. He said fluctuation in egg rates had not been witnessed as the commodity was arriving from Punjab.

Mr Maroof said layer birds were usually consumed in the poor areas, where people could not afford mutton and beef. PPA Sindh Zone Chairman Mohammad Hussain Patel said 25 to 35 per cent of layers in the poultry farms had perished.

He said efforts were being made by the farm owners to tackle the situation through vaccination. He said so far broiler birds were safe from the disease.

The Sindh poultry production and research director has stated in a report that the disease in layers has been detected at the Poultry Pathology Laboratory as avian influenza, H-7 and H-9.