Ban on Delhi poultry markets lifted after samples test negative for bird flu

The three civic bodies — north, east and south — on Thursday decided to withdraw its order regarding ban on the storage, packaging and sale of poultry and live birds across the national capital. The development comes after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that laboratory reports suggested that the avian influenza had not affected poultry birds in Delhi. He had instructed the civic bodies to allow poultry markets to re-open and withdraw the temporary restrictions on import of live birds and packaged chicken from other states.

The ban on sale and storage of poultry, its products and chicken was imposed by the three municipalities on Wednesday.

Jai Prakash, mayor North Delhi Municipal Corporation, said, “The ban on sale-purchase, processing and packaging of poultry meat and products, including serving of cooked or half cooked poultry products, in restaurants and hotels has been withdrawn with immediate effect.”

He said that the decision has been taken after due discussion in the video conference with Union minister of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries, Giriraj Singh. The meeting was attended by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, all the three mayors and commissioners of the three civic bodies.

Municipal officials said that bird flu tests of the samples collected from Ghazipur poultry market were found to be negative and orders were issued on Thursday to open the wholesale market by the Delhi government.

Nirmal Jain, mayor East Delhi Municipal Corporation, also confirmed the development and said that precautions for bird flu would be continued to be taken by the concerned departments. He appealed to the public to follow the guidelines, and safety procedures.

The Delhi government on Monday had confirmed that the avian influenza has hit the national Capital and accordingly had shut the Ghazipur wholesale poultry market for 10 days and banned the entry of live birds into the city without proper health certification from authorised veterinarians.

The government, later, also had prohibited the sale of packaged or processed chicken brought from outside Delhi. But, it had not put a total ban on sale of chicken and eggs within the city.

On Wednesday, the north, south and east Delhi municipal corporations went a step further and imposed a complete ban on any form of activity related to poultry and live birds including prohibiting restaurants and hotels from serving any item containing chicken or eggs to their customers.