Meat sales plummet in Vizag over bird flu scare

Fears of bird flu outbreak in Visakhapatnam lead to drop in chicken prices, rise in mutton sales.

Reports of a spread of the H5N1 avian influenza (bird flu) in East Godavari district has sparked fears of a similar outbreak in Visakhapatnam district, with locals shunning meat shops for the past few days.

Though no case of bird flu was reported in Anakapalli or Visakhapatnam districts, consumers are in no mood to take any chances, and have decided to give chicken a wide berth until the outbreak of the virus is contained. This has resulted in a steep fall in prices of chicken at meat shops across the city.

Most of the shops wore a deserted look on Wednesday. While ‘Magha Pournami’ was one reason, the bird flu panic was also a major factor.

On January 28, the price of chicken was ₹270 per kg, which fell to ₹220 per kg by February 6. On February 12, chicken was selling for ₹190 to ₹200 at most of the meat shops, while a handful were selling for ₹220 in core city areas. The shopkeepers expect a further drop in prices if the situation persists.

“Consumption has fallen due to panic over the influenza outbreak for the past two to three days. We used to bring around 50 live birds, but now we are forced to bring only about 15 to 20, even though there is no suspected case of bird flu in our district,” said K. Naidu, a chicken shop owner in Nakkavanipalem. He said he was selling a kg of chicken for ₹210, adding that the price dropped by over ₹50 in the last few days.

G. Prakash Rao, who owns a poultry farm at Hanumanthawaka, said that the birds in the district were healthy, and reiterated that they were strictly adhering to all precautionary measures.

Several chicken shop owners also expressed fear over incurring heavy losses owing to the outbreak of the virus.