Resurgent bird flu culls poultry industry

Hangzhou's two largest live poultry markets, Gouzhuang and Dajiang, closed on Wednesday.

Before its closure, live poultry trade in the Gouzhuang market totaled over 100,000 birds per day, with more than 70,000 chickens and 30,000 ducks, pigeons and geese sold daily, and hundreds of fully loaded trucks pulling in and out the market.

Now the market is quiet, with only sterilized empty cages and signs that said, "Live poultry processing forbidden, offenders fined with suspension of business."

Jiaxing Lihua Livestock Co Ltd, a leading poultry enterprise in Zhejiang, suffered a massive direct loss of over 22 million yuan ($3.63 million) in 2013.

"We prepared about three million chickens for the Lunar New Year market. When the market ban went into effect, there were still over 700,000 live chickens ready to go to market," said Wang Zewen, chief manager with the enterprise.

"Even before the market ban, we suffered losses of about six yuan for each chicken sold. While the market is closed, we are doomed to face a great loss," he said.

It is estimated that the ban will affect sales of about ten million live poultry in the province, according to statistics released by the Zhejiang provincial poultry industry association.

On Thursday, five new human H7N9 cases were reported in Zhejiang, which has seen new H7N9 cases for 15 consecutive days.

Over this period of continuous infections, the live poultry industry has experienced a 70-percent drop in sales with prices falling over 50 percent, according to a survey on poultry business conducted by the association.

The neighboring city of Shanghai will also halt live poultry trading from the Spring Festival to April 30 each year starting in 2014.

The city reported two more deaths from the H7N9 bird flu, raising the toll from the deadly virus to four so far this year, the Shanghai mayor said Thursday, without giving further details.