Poultry industry in Pakistan has suffered Rs 3 billion losses in two weeks period, due to decline in its sales following bird flu scare in the country.
The loss incurred by the public in terms of soaring prices of other forms of meat was even more than that of the poultry industry due to decline in its sales, Raza Mehmood Khusand, Chairman, Pakistan Poultry Association, said at a news conference at Lahore Press Club on Saturday.
About the magnitude of the loss incurred by the poultry industry two years back on account of bird flu fears he said that it amounted to Rs 18-20 billion.
He denied prevalence of the disease in Pakistan and said that vested interests had hatched a conspiracy to ruin the poultry industry. He added that bird flu had been reported in about 22 countries, and in this regard Pakistan Poultry Association had been maintaining close contract with the federal and provincial governments for the last two years. The association has perfect planning and comprehensive strategy to meet any kind of emergent situation, he asserted.
"We are firmly monitoring the situation constantly and are quite hopeful that we will be able to safeguard our poultry products from this disease." He said vaccination of poultry breeding stocks was just according to the world standards and the association was exercising very effective monitoring and surveillance system in the industry.
Raza said that there are 12 government laboratories working to diagnose Avian Influenza (Bird Flu, H5N1) virus in the country, and added that these laboratories have examined more than 28,000 samples but had not detected presence of even a single case of bird flu (H5N1). However, a few days back a laboratory detected presence of Avian Influenza (H5-Low Pathogenic) in two samples, whereas laboratory test of N types were under process but some officials of Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, without any confirmation, informed the media about presence of H5-low Pathogenic. In response, the poultry industry destroyed about 25,000 birds immediately to stop further spread of the disease in other areas, he said.
Giving details of poultry business, Khusand said that at present about Rs 100 billion is involved in Pakistan poultry industry while there are around 25,000 poultry farms in the country. The poultry sector generates employment and income for around 1,200,000 people. The sector is one of the most organised branches of the agro based sector of Pakistan. At present, 35 percent of agriculture produce is being used in poultry feeds while 35-40 percent of total meat consumption is being procured from poultry products.
He said that in Pakistan per capita consumption of meat is only 5 kg and 60-65 eggs annually, against the standard requirement of 20-25 kg and 200-250 eggs. Similarly, as per standard of WHO, daily requirement of protein for a person is 27 grams against the consumption of 17 grams in Pakistan.
As far as the issue of presence of bird flu is concerned, he said, poultry industry is much concerned about the matter and is quite capable of fulfilling its responsibilities. Therefore, there is nothing to worry about bird flu without any reason and people are advised to use chicken and eggs without any fear.
Dr Kamal Mustafa, a veterinary expert from Punjab government, said that at 70 degree Celsius bird flu virus dies. Therefore, people could consume chicken meat without any fear. About supply of vaccine, he said that the government had allowed its import and it is expected to reach Pakistan by Saturday night.
He said that migratory birds are also a source of the spread of the disease.
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