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Poultry prices tumble on bird flu fear

STAR REPORT
The bird flu in six Asian countries has also left its impact on poultry industry in Bangladesh with the wholesale and retail prices of day-old chicks and broilers dipping by around 40 per cent, sources in the industry said
Although there is no report of the highly contagious flu in Bangladesh till now, people are becoming less interested in consuming poultry, they mentioned.
Meanwhile, the World Health
Organisation (Who) has expressed fears the bird flu could 'combine with a human flu to create a dangerous mutant form'.
Thailand is now the second country where people, not just chickens, have come down with the disease. The other is Vietnam, where the virus has claimed five lives, an AP report said.
South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Cambodia are the four other countries hit by the bird flu epidemic.
In Dhaka, broiler now sells at Tk
35 per kg at wholesale markets against Tk 55 a kg two weeks ago. In retail markets, the price has come down to Tk 55 a kg from Tk 65 over the same period.
Price of day-old chicks was Tk 25 a piece two weeks ago and now it is Tk 15 each.
"About four million people are engaged in one lakh small, medium and large farms in the sector, which include poultry units, hatcheries, feed farms and related units," said an official of Paragon Poultry Limited.
It will be very difficult for small farms to survive as they are being forced to sell their products at prices much lower than production cost due to poor demand, he pointed out.
The annual growth rate of poultry sector in Bangladesh is around 20 per cent. Of the one-lakh poultry farms, 20 per cent rear 1,000 to 50,000 poultry birds each and the rest 100 to 1,000 birds each. Most of them do not have enough technical know-how to obtain maximum output from their investment, industry insiders said.
"We are going through a very bad time. Production cost of a broiler is more than Tk 50 as the usual price of a chick is Tk 25 and it consumes at least two kg of feed costing about Tk 30," said an official of Aftab Poultry Ltd.
The government has imposed a ban on import of poultry birds and day-old chicks from eight South-East and South Asian countries and some other countries to protect the local poultry industry from the bird flu.
Technical services for poultry industry from these countries will also remain banned for at least two months. Besides, steps have been taken to observe day-old chicks imported from these countries over the past two weeks, official sources said.
"The ban is for two months and the next decision will be taken after reviewing the situation," said an official of the Directorate of Livestock.