Bird flu scare hits chicken supply at Delhi’s Ghazipur market

The wholesale chicken market in east Delhi’s Ghazipur has seen a dip of about 27% in its supplies amid an apparent bird flu scare in the city.

The wholesale chicken market in east Delhi’s Ghazipur has seen a dip of about 27% in its supplies amid an apparent bird flu scare in the city.

The Ghazipur market received a total of 131 trucks of chicken on Friday, against the daily average is of around 180 trucks. (Ravi Choudhary/Hindustan Times)

Though, the supposed avian influenza has not yet entered the city’s food chain, the Ghazipur market received a total of 131 trucks of chicken on Friday, against the daily average is of around 180 trucks.

The livestock is bought by wholesalers from poultry farms in states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, and are transported to the market from where suppliers buy their stock.

When HT visited the market on Friday, heavy fumigation exercise was on. Market staff donning masks and protective gears was spotted spraying Microdacyn on the chickens.

“The market hasn’t seen an outbreak yet thankfully. We have teams who check that no dead chicken enters the market. Nearly 2.5 lakh chickens come here every day,” said Madan Lal, secretary of the Fish, Poultry and Egg Market Committee.

Read: Six more ducks found dead in Hauz Khas Park, report expected on Monday

Delhi development minister Gopal Rai visited the site on Friday and announced a slew of protective measures. He ordered that health certificate would be mandatory for poultry transported to the Ghazipur market. Besides, a 15-member committee comprising poultry traders, doctors and market association officials has been constituted for enforcement of the provision.

“Sunday onwards, any truck without the mandatory health certificate of the chickens would be sent back from the gates,” Rai said. Apart from fumigation, special pits filled with water, potassium and slack lime would also be created at the entry gates to sanitise tyres of each truck.

Meanwhile, Rai has also written to the animal husbandry ministers of Haryana, UP and Rajasthan over the bird flu panic. “It is observed that there is continuous movement of migratory birds from areas of Haryana, UP and Rajasthan which are adjacent to Delhi. I would request you to kindly sensitise the concerned authorities about these incident and issue required instructions for keeping surveillance and monitoring,” read his letter.