Noida: With reports of bird flu emerging from across the country, poultries in Noida are a concerned lot.
While a few shop owners said that they had seen a slight drop in the sale of poultry products, a few others pointed out that customers were curious about their products -- whether the bird they were buying was healthy when slaughtered and fresh.
“We have registered about 30% drop in sale of the chicken today and price too has dropped by ₹40 to 50 per kilogram. However, sale of other meat has picked up too,” said, Muhammad Faizan, who deals in food retail and wholesale business based out in sector 51, Noida. “News of bird flu have spooked a lot of people. However, there have been no such cases from Noida yet. If there are any directions from the administration on this, we will adhere to it.”
Another meat and poultry product shop Al-Eshan in sector-77 said their sale has not yet been affected.
“The customers are very concerned and asking questions about the safety of the meat and poultry products. But so far we have not seen any drop in sale,” said a worker at the shop.
At Delhi’s Ghazipur Murga Mandi that also supplies chicken to Noida and neighbouring cities, the wholesale traders said that price of birds had dropped.
{{/usCountry}}At Delhi’s Ghazipur Murga Mandi that also supplies chicken to Noida and neighbouring cities, the wholesale traders said that price of birds had dropped.
{{/usCountry}}“The wholesale rates have gone down by about ₹20 to ₹40 per kilogrammes so far. The demand has also affected due to the fear of the bird flu. However, the effect is not so visible in the retail market yet,” said Imran Qureshi, a wholesaler at Ghazipur Murga Mandi.
Cases of bird-flu had been reported in the state of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. While no case had been reported in Uttar Pradesh so far, the administration has formed a task force to inspect poultry.
“We have put all the veterinary hospitals on alert and the surveillance teams are on high alert. So far there had been no incident of unusual deaths among birds or any symptoms noticed suggesting avian flu. There had been only a few reports of two crow and a pigeon dying around some villages but there was nothing dicey about it as a few wild birds especially the crow often dies during the winters due to the lack of protein,” said VK Srivastava, chief veterinary officer (CVO), Gautam Budh Nagar.