Punjab poultry industry seeks celebrity help to fight bird flu fear

Punjab's poultry industry is pulling out all the stops to put chicken dishes back on people's plates and is turning to celebrities such as cricketer Yuvraj Singh in its campaign to help dispel public fear about bird flu.

"The effect of bird flu scare has been terrible. People know that so far no human being in India has been affected, but the fear still prevails after Maharashtra went on alert," said satirist-actor Jaspal Bhatti.

Different varieties of chicken- buttered, roasted, fried, chilly, masala and malai that are standard fare at Punjabi wedding feasts have completely vanished from menus across the state, he said.

"This is the peak season of weddings, but you won't find chicken. My niece got married here a few days ago and even though some chicken dishes were provided, none among the guests even touched them," he said.

Bhatti said he was hopeful that the panic situation would be over within a few days and people would once again begin relishing their favourite chicken dishes.

The bird flu scare has dented the state's flourishing poultry industry, Mahendra Arora, president, Punjab Poultry Farmers Association, said.

"There are over 1.25 lakh poultry birds in Punjab and 1800 big and small farmers are connected with this trade and we produce about 85 lakh eggs daily. Neighbouring states like Jammu and Kashmir have banned entry of our poultry products for the time being and the demand in our own state has fallen sharply," he said.

The price of a broiler has come down to Rs 25-30 per kg in the retail market as against Rs 65 earlier while eggs are commanding a price of just Rs 75/100 eggs as against Rs 130/100 eggs earlier, Arora said.

Apart from the 3.5 lakh work force involved in Punjab's poultry business, transporters who pressed their vehicles into service exclusively for ferrying the poultry birds have also been badly hit.

"The Punjab government is helping us a lot, but there is panic among the people. Our woes have also been compounded by the ban on poultry products imposed by some neighbouring states. We will hold a meeting with states concerned and urge them to lift the ban and allow free movement of products," he said.

Chicken used to be be preferred over fish and mutton in hotels but these days most hotels are avoiding chicken on their menus, Paramjit Singh Buddiraja, president, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Punjab, said.

"To restore people's faith, we have once again issued a new set of guidelines for hotels asking them to get supplies only from authorised poultry farmers and dealers, not to use raw eggs and to cook chicken at a prescribed temperature," Buddiraja said.

The All India Poultry Development Services Limited organised a "chicken mela" here which offered various mouth watering delicacies at heavily subsidised rates.

"The response here has been encouraging. We plan to take this campaign to Amritsar, Ludhiana and Delhi now. We are also talking to cricket star Yuvraj Singh, who is a local lad, to help us in our campaign so that fear about chicken in public's mind is removed," company's marketing manager, Sandeep Bhatia, said.

In Ludhiana, a poultry entrepreneur gave away as much as 700 kg of chicken free.