Virus scare: Poultry sector suffers Rs 250 crore loss

Poultry owners claimed that they were forced to sell chicken at a heavy loss of Rs 35 per kg as against its production cost of around Rs 75 per kg.

“Sale of chicken has crashed following rumours being spread in WhatsApp that coronavirus gets transmitted through chicken. People have begun to avoid eating chicken out of scare,” said V Subramaniam, vice president of the Poultry Farmers Association.

In this regard, the poultry owners have submitted a petition to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, seeking his intervention to curb the spread of such fabricated content in the social media. “Action should be taken against such rumour-mongers to save our industry,” they said in the petition.

More than three lakh people are employed directly and indirectly in the poultry sector in Namakkal, a leading producer of both eggs and broiler chicken.

As the poultry sector remains one of the top revenue generators, the poultry owners also urged the Chief Minister to set up a welfare board similar to the one for weavers and fisheries to sort out their issues.

Veterinarian Selva Kumar, who represented the poultry farmers, claimed that they have planned to hold ‘chicken mela’ to alleviate the fears of public that corona does not spread through chicken.

The Chief Minister was in Namakkal to condole the death of MLA KPP Baskar’s mother Palaniammal last week due to ill health.