Chicken sales still down

Although no case of bird flu was detected in the northern part of the country, the scare has drastically affected sales of chickens and eggs over the past 14 days.

Jalandhar is known to be the largest market for eggs in Punjab, which also meets the demands of neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).

But after the detection of some cases in Maharashtra, its impact can be seen also in the markets of these states because J&K has imposed a ban on the purchase of chickens and eggs from Punjab.

The market for eggs has gone down by about 85 per cent in the past one week and even the reduced prices have not helped egg sellers.

"Earlier the price of eggs used to be about Rs 140 for 100 eggs, but in spite of the reduced price of about Rs 75 per 100 eggs, the products are getting rotten in the poultry farm itself," said Amarjit Singh, owner of a poultry farm in the Suranassi area of the city.

In spite of such heavy losses, the Punjab government had not taken any steps to provide relief to poultry industry, he said.