NATIONAL EGG Coordination Committee (NECC) has demanded that the Government instead of just culling chickens to prevent spreading of bird-flu, should also go for vaccination of chicks.
Hard-selling that eating chicken was safer now and the scare of bird-flu was more due to myth and misconception, NECC along with MP Poultry Farmers’ Association has demanded financial relief from the State Government similar to Maharashtra. NECC’s national vice president Vishwanath Dubey said the scare of bird-flu had badly affected poultry business in Madhya Pradesh.
“There are more than 800 broiler and 95 layer farms in the State and daily egg production is 22 lakh. The loss to poultry business per day has reached Rs 3 crore,” he said.
Both bodies have also demanded setting up of a high-level committee represented by both Central and State Governments to clear doubts and myths related to bird-flu. “There’s no danger in consuming chicken outside the radius of 10 km of the bird-flu affected area and there’s ample misconception among public,” claimed Dr AG Khan.
Association president Piyush Jyotish has even gone to the extent of advising the State Government to change its way of briefing the media in the case of bird-flu. “The Government instead of reporting about the bird-flu, should get reports published that no commercial poultry farms in the State has bird-flu cases,” he suggested.
“Vaccine is the only way to prevent spreading of flu and the Government should allow vaccination of chicks like in Italy and France. Here, we don’t even get vaccine,” said NECC local chairman Chander Sachdev.
{{/usCountry}}“Vaccine is the only way to prevent spreading of flu and the Government should allow vaccination of chicks like in Italy and France. Here, we don’t even get vaccine,” said NECC local chairman Chander Sachdev.
{{/usCountry}}Taking the opportunity both bodies have also urged the State Government to provide various exemptions to poultry business in the form of exemptions and discounts.