Ramakanta Biswas

Bhubaneswar: Amid rumours regarding link of poultry and eggs with the deadly novel Coronavirus that led to a sharp drop in the sale of the products, the All Odisha Poultry Forum (AOPF) has appealed to the people not to get carried away by such rumours.

Addressing a presser, AOPF president Haramohan Dash on Tuesday said, people can eat chicken and eggs as the products are not cause of the lethal virus.

“Consumption of chicken and eggs has dropped heavily due to the impact of bird flu and coronavirus. Therefore, the poultry farmers are suffering huge loss. Social media seems to be the driving force behind the spread of such rumours. We need cooperation of all to increase the consumption of chicken and eggs,” Dash said.

Former chief scientist of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), BB Dash said, “The coronavirus infection being reported from China and other countries does not affect chicken. So it suggests that there is less likelihood of any sort of contamination of the virus in human from consumption of chicken or eggs.”

According to sources, there has been a sharp decline of around 50 per cent in the sale of broiler and chicken across Odisha ever since the outbreak of novel Coronavirus in China and other countries and detection of bird flu virus at a poultry farm of OUAT.

Rumours being spread by social media claiming that chickens are linked to the coronavirus have also led to a sharp drop in the price of the chicken.

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