Poor hygiene makes the state vulnerable

The large poultry industry in Punjab appears vulnerable to the bird flu outbreak in a similar way as it began in West Bengal. Talking to reporters here last week, officials of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) said they had investigated the poultry farms in Ludhiana, Amritsar and Chandigarh in the past few months and found gross negligence on the part of poultry farmers towards the birds.

According to them, the investigation was part of surveys carried out across the states and union territories in the country, and the situation was alarming everywhere. "Since the size of the poultry industry is large in Punjab, the scare of an outbreak was also large here," a PETA official said.

He emphasised that the government should not pay any compensation from the tax payers' money to the poultry farms as the bird flu spreads when the hygiene standards are not maintained during raising the poultries.

He said that standards set by the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) were not mandatory and the poultry farms were thriving on low-cost methods adopted to raise large number of birds in filthy conditions.

Antibiotics are routinely fed to healthy livestock and poultry to make them gain weight faster and to compensate for unsanitary living conditions, the official added.

According to him, PETA had filed a report with the state animal husbandry secretary in July 2007, but did not receive any communication from the concerned department. The state poultry industry, which is worth Rs 3,500 crore per annum, provides employment to more than 300,000 people.