Little poultry feed left after bird flu scare
Farmers outside the 5km danger zone of the bird flu-hit Chingmeirong farm, Manipur, India, are facing the prospect of losing healthy birds to starvation.
This is due to the ban on the movement of poultry feed and the closure of poultry markets.
Following the outbreak of avian influenza, the inflow of poultry products and poultry feed from Siliguri via Assam and Nagaland has been suspended. This, in turn, has the farmers operating poultry facilities in the area worrying.
Owners of a big poultry facility, M A Poultry Farm with a rolling chicken count of 6,000, say they have feed stock for only another week.
“How are we going to feed the chickens if the Government doesn’t allow feed to come into the state? All our feed comes from outside and we need between 200-300 kg of feed everyday. If deprived of food, the chickens will start devouring each other. It’ll be a total loss,” says Ambala, a veterinarian who changed professions a decade ago when the Khuraijams entered the poultry business. Culling, it seems, would have been more remunerative although the government is giving only Rs 30 as compensation per full grown broiler chicken.
This prevailing situation outside has prompted around 250 poultry farmers to come together and form the All Manipur Poultry Farmers and Traders Association, brought into being on July 30. The Association wants the Government to understand its plight and are submitting a memorandum to Governor Dr S S Sidhu urging that culling be completed at the earliest and the region declared free of bird flu so that the markets can start functioning again.
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