SARGODHA, July 27: The poultry industry is facing hardships and problems due to a bird flu propaganda at electronic and print media which caused a loss of Rs10 billion to the industry.

This was claimed by the Poultry Association president at a press conference here on Tuesday. He said, in fact, the bird flu was traced in 1901 and it hit Pakistan in 1995 when some four million birds died in Karachi.

He said recently Karachi was again hit by this disease and the electronic as well as print media publicized this issue. As a result, the chicken rates went down. He claimed the avian influenza did not affect the human being adversely.

He said there were some 20,000 poultry farmers and over 300,000 people were earning their livelihood from this industry. He said a poultry farmer had to dispose of a chicken within six weeks otherwise it started loosing weight and could not be used for eating.

He said the poultry industry was facing hardships and showing a decline due to mismanagement and a propaganda through media. He claimed that there was no trend of using frozen meat otherwise they could provide it to consumers very cheaply.

He urged the government to help save the industry from a collapse and ensure a decrease in the prices of poultry feeds and medicines. Deputy district officer (poultry production) Dr Mohammad Arshad confirmed by showing a test report that there was no virus of bird influenza in Sargodha.