February 15, 2021

 

Mumbai, India faces possible egg shortage due to avian influenza, culling at farms
 

 

Avian influenza have affected 21 layer poultry farms in Navapur, Nandurbar, India, leading to authorities to plan culling of poultry birds and increasing the likelihood that an egg shortage may soon happen in Mumbai and Pune.

"Of the 29 layer poultry farms in Navapur, two do not have birds and are closed. (Another) two, with around four lakh (400,000) poultry birds, are unaffected," Maharashtra's animal husbandry commissioner, Sachindra Pratap Singh, told The Times of India on February 13. "Of the remaining 25 layer poultry farms, 21 were affected with avian influenza, while eight cases from four remaining units were sent for tests recently. But even if some are negative, birds in the remaining four farms will be culled to break the chain of infection. Around 50,000 remaining birds are expected to be culled by (February 14)."

 

"This shortage of eggs is not only due to culling of lakhs of birds but also because many farmers sold off their birds in the wake of the flu," a poultry expert said.

 

- The Times of India