Bird Flu Scare: Chicken Sales Banned In Parts of Delhi

After the confirmation of bird flu cases in Delhi on Monday, the Delhi Municipal Corporations in the North and South of the state have banned the sale of poultry meat. Restaurants and hotels in the capital have also been warned and strictly ordered to not serve egg or poultry dishes.

Earlier today, the Health Department called on citizens of Delhi to avoid panic and not consume half-cooked chicken or eggs. Citizens were also asked to exercise caution while handling raw poultry and wash their hands frequently.

"H5N8 is highly pathogenic in birds but the pathogenicity in humans, as well as the likelihood of human infection with avian influenza (AH5N8) virus, is low," Delhi’s recently issued bird flu advisory stated in their notification. "Eat only completely cooked eggs and poultry products cooked at 70 degree Celsius for 30 minutes. Do not consume half-cooked chicken or bird or half-boiled and half-fried eggs."

This was announced after the discovery of several ducks at Sanjay Lake and crows across city parks who had reportedly died of the flu in the last few days. Ten samples collected across Mayur Vihar Phase-3, Sanjay Lake and Dwarka tested positive for the avian influenza in Bhopal's National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases.

Live birds were culled at the Sanjay Lake on Monday. The area has been sanitized and, along with three other parks in the city, shut down until further notice.

Even though Manish Sisodia, the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi informed the citizens that bird flu does not spread among humans, the government shut down the Ghazipur poultry market for ten days and has now banned the sale and entry of poultry products and livestock from outside the national capital. The Directorate General of Health Services has also emphasized on the proper disposal of slaughterhouse waste.

"The Delhi government is making all efforts to check the spread of bird flu and monitoring the situation. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is constantly in touch with officials. There is no need to panic as bird flu does not spread from one person to another," said Manish Sisodia.

Dr. Shobha Broor, the former head of department of microbiology at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), also elaborated that the flu is not likely to spread to humans, except in cases of mutations.

“It is not a respiratory infection like Covid-19 and can happen to humans only if they are handling the dead infected birds or poultry that has been infected,” she said. “However, once a person is infected, the disease tends to be severe. The bird flu virus usually attaches with the lower respiratory tract and causes pneumonia.” 

Apart from the capital, cases of bird flu have been found in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, according to the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.

This is NOT the first time that animal products have been the cause for epidemics and flus of such nature. SARS, Mad Cow Disease, Influenza are just some of the animal borne diseases which have drawn attention to the dangers of raising animals for food. Shortly after the coronavirus pandemic and the Hantavirus in China, the bird flu is the third big scare originating from animals agricultural practices in the recent months. A mutation of coronavirus was also reported last year in some of Europe’s biggest mink fur farms.

Will bird flu become the next pandemic?

When the natural state of biodiversity is disturbed through human intervention, it creates an imbalance in the larger ecosystems. This also leads to the development of zoonotic diseases and the consequent spread of epidemics. Industrialized and commercial animal agriculture is the biggest disrupting factor of biodiversity, and has proven to be dangerous for public health time and again.

Find out more on the relation between animal agriculture and animal borne diseases here.

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