22 February, 2006

Bird Flu Outbreak in India

Bird flu outbreak is the headline news in India now. India is 5th largest exporter of eggs and poultry products to the world and this incident will undoubtedly topple the poultry market and economy of poor farmers based on poultry fields. The world is keeping an eye on Indian developments on bird flu. Some recent big headlines on this issue are: CNN, BBC, ABC online,... I found the ABC online reporting 'India struggles to cope up with latest bird flu outbreak' as little disturbing. As the initial cases gets reported, the pandemonium caused by it is inevitable and I am sure that India will solve this issue soon.

Avian influenza is caused by Influenza A virus, reported first in Italy in early 20th century. It is present in different mutated strains all over the world. The virus strain reported in maharastra is H5N1 strain variant of avian flu virus. Indian health department is all out in field to cull 7 lakh odd poultry in and around the affected region. In shimoga district in karnatka, there was a sudden death of 15000 chicken reported, which later proved to be caused by common Infectious Bural Disease (IBD), rather than deadly avian flu.

Venkateshwara hatcheries, National Egg Co-ordination committee had staged a fight back with full page advertisments in newspaper claiming that avian flu outbreak in India is not true and it is drama set by multinational drug companies to sell their influenza vaccine. "DO not panic, do not inject yourselves with influenza or any other vaccine as you will show positive and then blame the chicken. You do not need any vaccine and there is no avian influenza in the country, and I appeal to the Government not to bring in any AI vaccine into the country. I will fight tooth and nail if they bring the vaccine."  This is the statement issued by Ms Anuradha Desai, Chairperson of the Rs 1,300-crore Venkateshwara Hatcheries.

[+] Bird flu's woe continues: As reported by NECC, the loss for last week alone is Rs.500 crores and if the trend continues for a 2-3 weeks, the accumulated losses will be around Rs.3000 crores. The report talks the about the effect in other industry too ( which is new news to me). The feeds for chicken (70% of Rs.35000 crore empire) is from maize and soya farms. So the affect in economy will not be restricted alone to Poultry farmers, it will reflect in multi-facets. Will continue to keep watch on the effect.

[+] Avian Flu outbreak, possible pandemic and how companies should plan for it, Risk management committee are the top dicussion topic among the Knowledge at Wharton University discussion club. Here is a report of the discussion.

[+] Hilarious forward email about bird flu outbreak

[+] Here is tag for discussion on this: Wish to hear all of your vociferous argments on an imaginative case study: 
how will you go about the issue if you are an owner of a poultry farm in India with waiting export order for Rs.10 crores for chickens.


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3 comments:

R Girls said...

YOu know what..Its a compliment, If I miss BBC in the morning to watch, i can be sure to get the important news from your blog. thanks..Also you can update me on chennai politics..I love that.

Anonymous said...

For the sake of the poultry farmers, the sooner the clarification, the better unless it is adverse to their interests. Its premature to say at the moment.

Nirek said...

@kart... Thanks da. I am keeping a close watch on devoplments in Birdflu in India. this is potentially big problem which can blew into big issue like SARS. hope that wont happen. Well said doc about the disease spreading behaviour....

@Nandhini...thanks yaar. I dont normally blog on hot news. Its humane and business perspective on this issue made me write about it in my blog. My actual intention is to have a common discussion forum for the way the poultry farmers go about in the whole issue. You know how bad it is to see your whole business is locked down and you duuno what to do for ur future.... really sad! :(

@Hiren... Welcome and Thanks for dropping by. Its inital confusion all over the place. you know how people look at restaurant waiters if they recommend chicken based dishes to their customers. Suddenly whole india got panicky about chickens and egg.