BHUBANESWAR: The West Bengal government has imposed an immediate ban on import of poultry products from Odisha following the outbreak of bird flu in Puri district.
Sources said the ban, which came into effect a couple of days back, has led to restrictions on the transportation of live poultry birds, eggs and other products.
“Joint teams of police and Animal Husbandry department of WB government are preventing entry of poultry birds and eggs from Odisha at the border posts. Though they allowed consignments carrying birds from Andhra Pradesh, vehicles with Odisha registration number were sent back,” sources said.
The decision has sparked concern among traders and farmers who stare at substantial financial losses. Odisha supplies around 100 tonne poultry birds to WB daily.
TK Sahu, manager of a leading poultry products’ integrator, said they have contracts and commitments for supplying around 20 tonne of poultry birds to WB daily. “This ban is not just a setback but a huge loss for our business,” he added.
The state government, however, assured it was taking necessary measures to control the situation and mitigate the impact on local farmers and traders.
Additional director of animal disease control Dr Jagannath Nanda said poultry integrators have been asked to alert farmers associated with them to inform the local officials whenever they suspect any case of bird flu and must sanitise their farms.
“Our focus is to prevent the spread of bird flu to other areas. So far, the avian influenza is restricted to Puri only. The samples from Kendrapara have been sent to the regional laboratory at Kolkata for testing. The report is expected within a day of two,” he added.
A poultry farmer Sushant Das from Balasore said the ban came as a severe blow. “We are already struggling with market fluctuations, and now the burden of finding an alternative market for poultry. Bird flu has not been detected in Balasore or its nearby districts. But the WB government has banned our birds,” he said.