Coronavirus: Sale of chicken, eggs dips in Amritsar

Amritsar, March 3

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After the detection of a Covid-19 case in Delhi, the sale of meat, chicken and eggs has started declining as people are avoiding non-vegetarian food in the city.

Poultry farmers say they are suffering losses due to a dip in sales on account of misplaced fear of people. The prices of egg, meat and chicken have also come down.

A poultry farmer said the wholesale rate of an egg came down from Rs 3.80 to Rs 3. Similarly, the rate of a broiler of 1 kg came down from Rs 90 to Rs 70.

He said they were monitoring the situation after a couple of positive coronavirus cases were reported in the country, including one in Delhi.

Baljit Singh Bittu, a retail butcher, said the sale certainly came down in the past one week. He said it forced them to bring down retail rates of a broiler to Rs 130 per kg from the previous Rs 150.

Navneet Kaur, a youngster, said she always liked to have non-vegetarian food. However, after reading reactions of celebs avoiding non-vegetarian food following the corona scare she also decided to stop it for some time. Meanwhile, poultry farmers forwarded a release from the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. It said the predominant route of transmission of 2019-nCoV appeared to be human to human.

Poultry products have not been found to be involved in the transmission of 2019-nCoV to humans so far in any report globally. “Similarly, viral outbreaks of corona virus in the past (SARS 2002-03, MERS 2012-13) or corona associated with common cold had no involvement of poultry or poultry products.” — TNS