Bird flu in chitwan : Farmers report Rs 60 million loss

Bird flu in Chitwan : Farmers report Rs 60 million loss

CHITWAN, APR 24 -

A recurrence of the bird flu pandemic in Chitwan has put at risk investments worth millions of rupees. The southern district has witnessed several bird flu outbreaks this year. According to poultry farmers, the pandemic has caused losses estimated at Rs 60 million. Investments in poultry farming in Chitwan amount to around Rs 25 billion. The district is the heart of the country’s poultry business.

On Monday, cases of bird flu were confirmed at two more farms. Ram Kumar Karki, chief of the District Livestock Service Office in Chitwan, said that around 2,876 fowls at the farm of Chitra Raj Shrestha in Bharatpur Municipality and 3,175 chickens and 300 eggs at the farm of Ram Babu Thapaliya in Mangalpur VDC were destroyed on Monday night. 

According to him, bird flu has been seen in five places in Chitwan in recent times. There are 500 farms raising layer chickens and 1,000 farms raising broiler chickens in the district. Layer chickens are raised for eggs while broilers are raised for meat production. There are 10 layer chicken and 45 broiler chicken hatcheries in the district. An estimated 60,000 people are directly employed in poultry farming. 

Chandra Man Shrestha, president of the Poultry Entrepreneurs Forum, said that the disease spread rapidly due to delays in confirming the outbreak by government officials. As tests have to be confirmed by the Central Laboratory, it takes a lot of time. “As a result, the disease spread rapidly.” 

He added that if infected chickens were culled immediately, it would slow down the spread of the disease. Some big firms do not wait for the test results after they suspect an outbreak. They take action immediately to prevent it from spreading. “They slaughter the chickens by themselves and then bury them. The reason is that they fear losing the market,” Shrestha said.   Two weeks ago, bird flu was seen at the farm of Pratap Thapa in Saradpur which contained around 4,000 chickens. Livestock officers culled 2,200 chickens, while the rest of the infected chickens were found dead on the farm.  

Last Friday, the disease was detected on the farms of Laxmi Rana at Basanta Chowk in Bharatpur and Rajendra Hamal at Mangalpur. After the outbreak, 28,575 chickens were slaughtered at the two farms.

According to the forum, Rana suffered a loss of Rs 40 million while Hamal lost around Rs 2.5 million. “We will recommend to the government to compensate the losses,” Karki said. “We cannot recommend compensation for chickens that have died on the farm.” Poultry entrepreneurs said that it costs Rs 500 to Rs 600 to raise a layer chicken. However, the government pays Rs 130 for a chicken and Rs 3 for an egg as compensation.

Nimbus announces relief for bird flu hit farm

Nimbus Group under its recently launched ‘Bird Flu Relief Fund’ will provide Rs 419,250 in compensation to bird flu hit farmer Rajendra Hamal in Chitwan, the group has said in a statement.Hamal farm was recently declared bird flu hit farm by the government. The Rapid Response Team under the Department of Livestock Services on April 19 slaughtered 3,225 layer birds in his farm.

The relief amount will be provided as per the data of the government in ‘certificate of destruction’. In January, Nimbus had compensated Rs 343,200 to layers farmers at Sitapaila in Kathmandu. Nimbus, the producer of Shakti brand of feed, had declared the relief scheme on December 9, 2012.

Source: The Kantipur Daily