Suicides follow the bird flu

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Hyderabad, March 26: Having reeled under the bird flu fear, poultry industry across the country is now facing a suicide spree.

Due to a reported loss of over Rs 4,000 crore across the country, small farmers are scared due to low prices. The industry is badly hit with prices going down to as low as 50 paise per egg and Rs 5 for one kg of chicken from an all-time high of Rs 1.80 and Rs 65 respectively. Apparently, domestic prices are hurting the small farmers and forcing some of them to even commit suicide.

According to K Narayana Reddy, president, Andhra Pradesh Poultry Federation, three farmers - one each from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal had committed suicide in the recent weeks. It has also been reported that over 10 farmers in the country have committed suicide since the bird flu scare broke out. Blaming the insensitive attitude of the Centre, Mr Reddy said, farmers are committing suicide due to mounting losses and inablility to feed the birds due to very low egg prices over 35 days.”

KVS Subba Raju, zonal chairman, National Egg Coordination Committee, said when there is no single case of human to human transmission of Avian Influenza anywhere in the world and not even a single case of human blood sample testing positive for bird flu anywhere in the country, the Central government officials are unnecessarily terrorising the public with their statements on spread of bird flu to human beings.