Culling not acceptable to woman poultry keeper

Alifa Bibi lives with her mother and two sisters in Murshidabad District.  She is a young woman in her late twenties, separated from her husband and earns a living by rearing poultry. The family owns less than a bigha of land where paddy and mustard are grown. Before the Bird Flu outbreak, Alifa had a mixed flock of around 100 birds consisting of Kuroiler, Desi and Guinea fowl. The birds were a major source of income for Alifa. She could manage to make ends meet comfortably from her poultry business.

Her village fell within five Km radius from the village where outbreak was reported but there has been no unusual mortality in her flock or in her village. She heard from her neighbours that there has been an outbreak of disease and all birds have to be killed. She and her family do not understand what bird flu is and why her healthy flock has to be culled.

Alifa and her sisters did not want any of their birds to be culled but had to give in when they were threatened of police action on households that did not cooperate.  Being an all women household, they got scared and made a distress sale of about 60 birds for Rs 2500/-, a paltry Rs 40/- per bird. The market rate of her bird was more than Rs 100/- per bird and they ended up making losses on the transaction.

Twenty birds were offered for culling while 15 birds were hidden for regeneration. This included a few Kuroilers, a pair of Guinea Fowl and Desi hens. Within days of culling, their Desi hen had already hatched 9 chicks and this was a joyous occasion for the family.

For this household, bird flu, compensation, culling do not matter, what matters is that they may be able to continue with poultry keeping as they have always done. 

Contributed by - Coordination Team

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